Appraisals of Bangladeshi Medicinal Plants Used by Folk Medicine Practitioners in the Prevention and Management of Malignant Neoplastic Diseases.

Md Nur Kabidul Azam,Samanta Biswas,Md Mizanur Rahman,Md Nasir Ahmed

doi:10.1155/2016/7832120

Abstract

Cancer is a group of diseases which is categorized to differentiate into diverse cell types and move around in the body to sites of organogenesis that is key to the process of tumor genesis. All types of cancer fall into the group of malignant neoplastic diseases. In Bangladesh, cancer is now one of the foremost killer diseases and its personal, social, and economic bearing are huge. Plant-derived natural compounds (vincristine, vinblastine, etoposide, paclitaxel, camptothecin, topotecan, and irinotecan) are useful for the treatment of cancer. Since there is no extensive ethnobotanical research study in Bangladesh regarding the traditional uses of medicinal plants against neoplasms, therefore, a randomized ethnopharmacological surveys were carried out in 3 districts of Bangladesh to learn more about the usage of anticancer medicinal plants and their chemical constituents having antineoplastic activity. Comprehensive interviews were conducted to the folk medicine practitioners and medicinal plants as pointed out by them were photographed, collected, deposited, and identified at the Bangladesh National Herbarium. The various plant parts have been used by the healers which included whole plant, leaves, fruits, barks, roots, and seeds. This study evaluated considerable potential for discovery of novel compounds with less side effects in the management and prevention of malignancy in cancer.

Highlights

Cancer is defined as an abnormal growth of cells caused by multiple changes in gene expression leading to deregulated balance of cell proliferation and cell death
A total of 20 plant species were obtained from the Kabirajes of the three districts surveyed
Methanol extract of Cucurbita maxima aerial parts has been performed against Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma model in mice by Saha et al [52] for the antitumor activity and the results revealed that C. maxima possesses significant anticancer activity which may be due to its cytotoxicity and antioxidant properties

Summary

Introduction

Cancer is defined as an abnormal growth of cells caused by multiple changes in gene expression leading to deregulated balance of cell proliferation and cell death. Cancer is those tumors [1] that have developed the ability to invade the surrounding normal tissues. A cancerous cell is traveling throughout the body using the blood or lymph systems, destroying healthy tissue in a process called invasion, and that cell manages to make new blood vessels to feed itself in a process called angiogenesis. Tumors may activate angiogenic inhibitors (angiostatin and endostatin) that can modulate angiogenesis at both the primary site and downstream sites of metastasis [3, 4], when a tumor successfully spreads to other parts of the body using the blood or lymph systems known as metastasis

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Conclusion