BIOACTIVITY AND POTENTIAL HEALTH BENEFITS OF ROSMARINIC ACID Minireview

Substantial attention has been given to primary cancer prevention in daily life. Secondary metabolites of plants in the form of functional foods or nutraceuticals are known as preventive agents for a variety of diseases, including cancer. Rosmarinic acid (RA) is a naturally occurring polyphenolic compound, which contributes to the beneficial and health-promoting effects of herbs, spices and medicinal plants. There is a growing interest in the elucidation of the biological roles of this compound. Presented minireview summarizes the selected biological activities of RA with attention to its antitumor and chemopreventive activity. RA has been shown to act at various stages of tumor development, including inhibition of tumorigenesis, inhibition of tumor promotion, and induction of tumor cell differentiation. RA effectively inhibits angiogenesis, invasion of tumor cells and metastasis. With regard to toxicity, no obvious side effects of RA have been observed in studies to date. RA could be therefore used as chemopreventive/chemoprotective agent in clinical praxis. However, further studies are needed to explore the full potential of this compound.