Only a limited number of research institutions in the world concentrate on the research of indole phytoalexins, which stand for unique and structurally unusual natural substances. One of these institutions is the Department of Pharmacology of the Faculty of Medicine at the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, the employees of which concentrate on the research of possible antitumor effects of some natural substances, or of their synthetic derivatives – e,g, different polyphenol compounds as flavonoids and chalcones. The head of the Department of Pharmacology prof. MVDr. Ján Mojžiš, DrSc. claims that the research of the last years indicate that indole phytoalexines may have beneficial effects on human health. They are able to repress the growth of the tumor cells or indicate apoptosis, i.e. programmed cell death. That is the reason why they have become the object of research.
