Traditional Medicine Offers Hope for Cancer Management

Abstract

Traditional medicine practices play a vital role in health care systems in countries with developing economies like China, India, USA and few African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe etc. The aim of this scientific article was to enlighten the public of the use of traditional medicine within local Nigerian communities for cancer management. In this article, we examine the ethnobotanical uses of selected plant species from the Nigerian flora and attempt to correlate the activities of the isolated bioactive principles with known uses of the plant species in African traditional medicine. Hundreds of plant species have been identified and about 100 out of the compounds identified with these plants matched with the ethnobotanical uses of the plants.