Clusiaceae

Clusiaceae, the garcinia family (order Malpighiales), comprises about 14 genera and some 800 species of tropical trees and shrubs. Gamboge (Tenghuang in Chinese), the resin of Garcinia hanburyi Hook f. (Clusiaceae), well known as a natural fresh orange-yellow pigment, is used in TCM for removing stasis, detoxification, hemostasis, and as anthelmintic. In recent years, this resin has been a focus of intense research in phytochemical, pharmacological, synthetic, and biological communities owing to its antitumor activities. Gambogic acid (GA), the best representative of this class of constituents, has the most potential as a broad-spectrum anticancer drug candidate.