Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally. Millions of persons die due to cancer each year. In the last two decades, the anticancer effects of natural flavonoids have become a hot topic in many laboratories. Meanwhile, flavonoids, of which over 8000 molecules are known to date, are potential candidates for the discovery of anticancer drugs. The current review summarizes the major flavonoid classes of anticancer efficacy and discusses the potential anti-cancer mechanisms through inflammation and oxidative stress action, which were based on database and clinical studies within the past years. The results showed that flavonoids could regulate the inflammatory response and oxidative stress of tumor through some anti-inflammatory mechanisms such as NF-κB, so as to realize the anti-tumor effect.

Castanea mollissima Blume (Chinese chestnut), as a food product is known for its various nutrients and functional values to the human health. The present study was carried out to analyze the anti-diabetic complications and anti-cancer activities of the bioactive compounds present in C. mollissima. The kernels (CK), shells (CS) and involucres (CI) parts of C. Blume were extracted with 90% alcohol. The water suspension of these dried alcohol extracts were extracted using EtOAc and n-BuOH successively. The n-BuOH fraction of CI (CI-B) was isolated by silica gel column, Sephadex LH 20 column and preparative HPLC. The isolated compounds were identified by 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, HMBC, HMQC and ESI-Q-TOF MS, All the fractions and compounds isolated were evaluated on human recombinant aldose reductase (HR-AR) assay, advanced glycation end products (AGEs) formation assay and human COLO 320 DM colon cancer cells inhibitory assay. CI-B was found to show a significant inhibitory effect in above biological screenings. Six flavonoids and three polyphenolic acids were obtained from CI-B. They were identified as kaempferol (1), kaempferol-3-O-[6''-O-(E)-p-coumaroyl]-β-D-glucopyranoside (2), kaempferol-3-O-[6''-O-(E)-p-coumaroyl]-β-D-galactopyranoside (3), kaempferol-3-O-[2''-O-(E)-p-coumaroyl]-β-D-glucopyranoside (4), kaempferol-3-O-[2