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Natural products are chemical substances produced by living organisms of the Biota superdomain, namely plants, animals, fungi and bacteria (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1913). Up to 80% of all drugs discovered prior to 1981 and 50% of all approved drugs between the years 1994 and 2007 are of natural product origin (Harvey, 2008). The contribution of natural products derived from plants, particularly to the well-being of mankind, extends very far back in history. Some of the most famous findings supportive of this fact come from the Middle East region and include documented medical papyri of ancient Egyptians dating back to ca. 1,850 B.C., as well as recent studies revealing their use of medicinal herbs dispensed in grape wine ca. 3,150 B.C. (McGovern et al., 2009). Incidentally, the oldest evidence for the use of herbal medicine to be so far discovered dates back to the prehistoric Neanderthal man who lived also in the Middle East region around 60,000 years ago (Solecki, 1971). Several world heritages of medicinal plants have also inspired and greatly contributed to the development of modern medicine (Azaizeh et al., 2008). Indeed some of the early drugs were derived from plants. Morphine, for instance, was the first pharmacologically active pure compound to be extracted from a plant over 200 years ago (Jesse et al., 2009). Clinical, pharmacological, and chemical studies have since then led to the identification of a lengthy list of drugs derived from plants covering a wide range of diseases from diabetes, malaria, microbial infections, osteoporosis to inflammation and cancer. The story of the discovery of plants exhibiting anticancer properties in particular, began almost fifty years ago. With the increase in cancer incidences, there has been an increase of interest in screening for anti-tumor agents from diverse sources including plants. For that purpose, in 1960 the National Cancer Institute (NCI) launched a large-scale screening of 35,000 sample plants. The program resulted among others, in the discovery in 1967 of the best-selling anticancer drug today; Taxol (Cragg, 1998). This breakthrough boosted cancer researchers all over the world and especially those in regions with high diversity to explore the indigenous plants’ active ingredients efficacy against cancer. Considering that more than 60% of anticancer drugs available for clinical use today are derived from natural products including plants (Balunas et al., 2005; Newman and Cragg, 2007), one cannot deny that there has been a successful contribution of plants to the fight against cancer (reviewed in GaliMuhtasib and Bakkar, 2002; Darwiche et al., 2007).

Salograviolide A: A Plant-Derived Sesquiterpene Lactone with Promising Anti-Inflammatory and Anticancer Effects