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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Athens, Georgia » U.S. National Poultry Research Center » Toxicology & Mycotoxin Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #295826
Title: Naturally occurring chemical carcinogens

Author
item Riley, Ronald

Submitted to: World Health Organization
Publication Type: Monograph
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/4/2013
Publication Date: 10/19/2013
Citation: Riley, R.T. 2014. Naturally occurring chemical carcinogens.In: World Cancer Report, pp.169 B. Stewart and C.P. Wild, eds, Interantional Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France

Interpretive Summary: This chapter summarizes current knowledge about the possible, probable and known carcinogens that are naturally occurring organic chemicals of microbial or plant origin. These chemicals are a subset of a larger grouping of naturally occurring chemicals known as natural products. Natural products are chemicals found in nature which have unique pharmacological effects. For example, in the “Dictionary of Natural Products” there are over 230,000 natural products described. Some of the chemicals listed are not produced by living organisms but are semi-synthetic derivatives of the parent compound. Nonetheless, there are a large number of natural products produced by living organisms in their natural environment and many remain to be discovered. In this review, the focus will be cancer causing chemicals produced in nature by bacteria, fungi and plants.

Technical Abstract: Natural products are chemicals found in nature which have unique pharmacological effects. Humans are exposed to many of these bioactive naturally occurring chemicals via the air breathed, the water drunk and the food eaten. Exposure also occurs in clinical settings. Naturally occurring chemicals produced by bacteria and evaluated as possibly or probably cancerous to humans include antibiotics, chemotherapeutic agents and the water contaminant microcystin LR. Environmental exposure to cyanobacterial toxins is well documented. Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of microfungi known to cause sickness or death in humans or animals. Exposure to carcinogenic mycotoxins can be high in areas where a single commodity is consumed as a dietary staple. Several agents produced by plants and used as food, food additives or herbal medicines have been classified as human or animal carcinogens. These plants are sometimes inadvertent contaminants of food crops and herbal preparations.