There are abundant sources of anticancer drugs in nature that have a broad prospect in anticancer drug discovery. Natural compounds, with biological activities extracted from plants and marine and microbial metabolites, have significant antitumor effects, but their mechanisms are various. In addition to providing energy to cells, mitochondria are involved in processes, such as cell differentiation, cell signaling, and cell apoptosis, and they have the ability to regulate cell growth and cell cycle. Summing up recent data on how natural products regulate mitochondria is valuable for the development of anticancer drugs. This review focuses on natural products that have shown antitumor effects via regulating mitochondria. The search was done in PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases, over a 5-year period, between 2015 and 2020, with a keyword search that focused on natural products, natural compounds, phytomedicine, Chinese medicine, antitumor, and mitochondria. Many natural products have been studied to have antitumor effects on different cells and can be further processed into useful drugs to treat cancer. In the process of searching for valuable new drugs, natural products such as terpenoids, flavonoids, saponins, alkaloids, coumarins, and quinones cover the broad space.

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Phytochemical analysis of Euphorbia sogdiana Popov, Euphorbiaceae, afforded the isolation of three new diterpenes based on the rare 6(17)-epoxylathyrane skeleton (1-3), along with a lathyrane (4), a myrsinane (5) and a tigliane (6) diterpenoids, previously isolated from Euphorbia aellenii. Their chemical structures were established through a combination of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and mass spectrometric methods. The epoxylathyranes 1-4 were tested to evaluate their cytotoxic activity against Jurkat T-leukemia and EJ-138 bladder cancer cells and their chemical analogy allowed to propose some structure activity relationships.

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The cytotoxic chloroform fraction of Euphorbia aellenii afforded two cycloartane type triterpenes-cycloart-25-en-3β,24-diol (1) and 24-methylene-cycloartan-3β-ol (2)-for the first time from this plant. Preparation of cycloartane derivatives, 3β, 24-O-diacetyl-cycloart-25-en as compound 3 and 3β-O-acetyl-24-methylene-cycloartan (4) were conducted by acetylating of 1 and 2, respectively. The structures of the isolated compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic methods and their activities evaluated by proliferation assay on human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs). Comparing the results suggested that anti-proliferation effect of these compounds on PBLs might be due to the presence of free 3-OH group while masking the free OH groups by acetylation, could induce proliferation activity.

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Two new 14-desoxo-10, 18-dihydromyrinsol diterpenoids (1 and 2) were isolated and characterized from the cytotoxic chloroform fraction of Euphorbia aellenii Rech. f. (Euphorbiaceae). The structures of the new compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic methods and their immunomodulatory properties were evaluated by T-cell proliferation and phagocyte chemiluminescence assays.

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Euphorbia aellenii Rech. f. (Euphorbiaceae) afforded a cytotoxic chloroform fraction from which two new esters of 6(17)-epoxylathyrol were identified (1 and 2). The structure of these compounds was elucidated by spectroscopic methods.

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