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.
Highlights
Plants are the sources of different chemical constituents such as essential oils, seed oils, and other phytochemicals, which gives a potential for various applications and pharmaceutical uses [1,2,3,4]
People have used traditional medicinal plants (MPs) (TMs) as primary health care contributors for thousands of years, and they play a vital role in preventing many diseases in resource-limited areas of developing countries [6, 7]
About 2,000 aromatic and medicinal plant species are commercially used in Europe, while over 5,000 plant species are estimated to be used for medicinal purposes in Africa [10]
Summary
Plants are the sources of different chemical constituents such as essential oils, seed oils, and other phytochemicals, which gives a potential for various applications and pharmaceutical uses [1,2,3,4]. Traditional MPs (TMs) keep us healthy and treat different illnesses [5]. More attention has been given to TMs by different researchers because they can generate many uses and applications in the line of medicine and pharmacy [8]. In China, from total medicinal consumption, about 30% to 50% was gained from medicinal plants (MPs) [9]. In Ethiopia, approximately 80% of the population uses MPs because of the cultural suitability for local medicine [9]
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