Abstract
Moroccan cancer patients use traditional herbal medicine and no ethno botanical study has targeted them in the Béni Mellal Khénifra region. We had the objective to measure the frequency use of medicinal plants by cancer patients in the region of Béni Mellal Khénifra as well as the communication around this use and to inventory the plants used added to their adverse effects. We used an ethno botanical survey was conducted among 314 patients at the regional oncology center of Béni Mellal. The prevalence of use and the relative frequency of citation (RFC), the proportion of patients reporting this use and its adverse effects were measured. the prevalence of medicinal herbs use was 37.3% (n = 117). The citation relative frequency of plants ranged from 0.005 to 0.16. We found, also, 32 species belonging to 19 botanical families. Almost 90% (n = 102) of patients do not communicate this use and the most used plants are: Marrubium vulgare (16%), Ephedra alata (13%) and Juniperus oxycedrus (12%) Some plants seem toxic, in particular Juniperus oxycedrus used in a form of tar. The drug-plant interaction requires monitoring due to the lack of communication.
Highlights
About 70 to 80% of patients in Africa are treated with traditional medicine (TM) due to the high costs of conventional medicines, their natural origins [1] as well as their availability [2].In Morocco, traditional medicine, especially plants, were widely used by folk medicine to treat ailments and diseases, and they are still used in the same way especially in rural areas [3,4]
Since no ethnobotanical study has been concerned with cancer patients in the region, our objective was to measure the frequency of medicinal plants use by cancer patients in the Beni Mellal Khénifra region, the communication around it and to make an inventory of the plants used and their undesirable effects
The Beni Mellal khénifra region is a new Moroccan region created according to the new administrative division of 2015 encompassing five provinces: Azilal, Béni Mellal, Fquih Ben Salah, Khénifra and Khouribga
Summary
About 70 to 80% of patients in Africa are treated with traditional medicine (TM) due to the high costs of conventional medicines, their natural origins [1] as well as their availability [2]. In Morocco, traditional medicine, especially plants, were widely used by folk medicine to treat ailments and diseases, and they are still used in the same way especially in rural areas [3,4]. Cancer patients to the others tend to frequently use all types of traditional and complementary medicine more than healthy people [6,7]. In Morocco, tumors represented 13% of death cases in this country in 2015 (Ministry of Health Morocco Health 2016)
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