Traditional and Phytochemical Bases of Herbs, Shrubs, Climbers, and Trees from Ethiopia for Their Anticancer Response

Abstract

Ethiopia is one of Africa’s six plant-rich countries, with around 60% of the plants being indigenous and most of them having medicinal properties. 80% of people in the country use these plants as a primary health care system to tackle different diseases, including cancer. This review is aimed at summarizing the evidence gained from diverse MPs in Ethiopia that have been used ethnobotanically and ethnopharmacologically for treatment of cancer. The primary data sources were Google Scholar, Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, PubMed, and other electronic scientific databases. This literature review showed that there are around 200 MPs used as anticancer. Seventy-four herbs, 39 trees, 77 shrubs, and 17 weed/climbers belonging to 56 families have been identified for their ethnobotanical anticancer potential, and 31 species were recognized for their pharmaceutically anticancer activities. The reviewed data also indicated that many Ethiopian MPs had been used to treat breast, lung, blood, and skin cancers and other tumors. Besides, the collected data showed that the leaves (36.76%), roots (27.2%), bark (12.5%), stem (5.1%), and fruit (7.35%) of plants are commonly used for the preparation of anticancer remedies. Among the reported plant species, Euphorbiaceae (10.71%), Acanthaceae (7.14%), and Asteraceae (7.1%) are the most prominent plant families being used to treat cancer ethnobotanically. Phytochemicals such as flavonoids (like xanthone, indirubin, flavopiridol, and silybin), alkaloids (like taxol, vincristine, evodiamine, and berberine), and physalin B, D, and F steroids exhibited anticancer activity on various cancer cell lines. The crude extracts of Aerva javanica, Vernonia leopoldi, Withania somnifera, Kniphofia foliosa, and Catharanthus roseus were powerful anticancer agents with an IC50 value below 10 μg/mL. Although several Ethiopian plants possess anticancer potential, only a limited number of plants are scientifically studied. Therefore, more scientific studies on anticancer MPs should be carried out; it may lead to discovering and isolating cost-effective and safe anticancer drugs.

Preliminary Phytochemical Analysis, <i>In-vitro</i> Evaluation of Antibacterial and Anticancer Activity of <i>Cleome aspera</i> Aerial Part Extracts

“…The results of the MIC study revealed three extracts' antibacterial activity against the tested strains of microorganisms. In this present investigation, the ethanol extract significantly reduced the viability of the cancer cell line MDA MB 231 42 . Many claimed that the potent antibacterial activities of medicinal plants were because of the existence of phytochemical components such as alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, and tannins 41 .…”

The use of African medicinal plants in cancer management

“…This mixture is then consumed by the cancer patient early in the morning before breakfast ( Teklehaymanot, 2009 ). The callus and leaf methanol extracts of A. javanica were tested against MCF-7s ( Teklehaymanot, 2009 ; Abate et al, 2022 ) and were found to induce DNA fragmentation and cytotoxicity, which are indicators of apoptosis.…”

Therapeutics to Treat Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders: A Promising Perspective from Algerian Traditional Medicine

“…Traditional medicine often incorporates at least one component or product derived from trees, such as fruits, flowers, bark, roots, seeds, resin, or oil [234,235].…”