North African Medicinal Plants Traditionally Used in Cancer Therapy

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Abstract

Background: Cancer is a major cause of mortality worldwide with increasing numbers by the years. In North Africa, the number of cancer patients is alarming. Also shocking is that a huge number of cancer patients only have access to traditional medicines due to several factors, e.g., economic difficulties. In fact, medicinal plants are widely used for the treatment of several pathologies, including cancer. Truthfully, herbalists and botanists in North African countries prescribe several plants for cancer treatment. Despite the popularity and the potential of medicinal plants for the treatment of cancer, scientific evidence on their anticancer effects are still scarce for most of the described plants.

Objective: Bearing in mind the lack of comprehensive and systematic studies, the aim of this review is to give an overview of studies, namely ethnobotanical surveys and experimental evidence of anticancer effects regarding medicinal plants used in North Africa for cancer therapy.

Method: The research was conducted on several popular search engines including PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science. The research focused primarily on English written papers published between the years 2000 and 2016.

Results: This review on plants traditionally used by herbalists in North Africa highlights that Morocco and Algeria are the countries with most surveys on the use of medicinal plants in folk medicine. Among the plethora of plants used, Nigella sativa and Trigonella foenum-graecum are the most referred ones by herbalists for the treatment of cancer. Moreover, a plethora of scientific evidence qualifies them as candidates for further drug development. Furthermore, we report on the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms.

Conclusion: Overall, this review highlights the therapeutic potential of some medicinal plants as anticancer agents. The North African flora offers a rich source of medicinal plants for a wide array of diseases, including cancer. The elucidation of their modes of action represents an indispensable condition for the rational development of new drugs for cancer treatment. Furthermore, testing the anticancer activity in vivo and in clinical trials are warranted to explore the full therapeutic potential of North African plants for cancer therapy.

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Most cited references 161

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Signal transducer and activator of transcription-3, inflammation, and cancer: how intimate is the relationship?.

Bharat B. Aggarwal, Ajaikumar Kunnumakkara, Kuzhuvelil B. Harikumar … (2009)

Signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT-3) is one of six members of a family of transcription factors. It was discovered almost 15 years ago as an acute-phase response factor. This factor has now been associated with inflammation, cellular transformation, survival, proliferation, invasion, angiogenesis, and metastasis of cancer. Various types of carcinogens, radiation, viruses, growth factors, oncogenes, and inflammatory cytokines have been found to activate STAT-3. STAT-3 is constitutively active in most tumor cells but not in normal cells. Phosphorylation of STAT-3 at tyrosine 705 leads to its dimerization, nuclear translocation, DNA binding, and gene transcription. The phosphorylation of STAT-3 at serine 727 may regulate its activity negatively or positively. STAT-3 regulates the expression of genes that mediate survival (survivin, bcl-xl, mcl-1, cellular FLICE-like inhibitory protein), proliferation (c-fos, c-myc, cyclin D1), invasion (matrix metalloproteinase-2), and angiogenesis (vascular endothelial growth factor). STAT-3 activation has also been associated with both chemoresistance and radioresistance. STAT-3 mediates these effects through its collaboration with various other transcription factors, including nuclear factor-kappaB, hypoxia-inducible factor-1, and peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-gamma. Because of its critical role in tumorigenesis, inhibitors of this factor's activation are being sought for both prevention and therapy of cancer. This has led to identification of small peptides, oligonucleotides, and small molecules as potential STAT-3 inhibitors. Several of these small molecules are chemopreventive agents derived from plants. This review discusses the intimate relationship between STAT-3, inflammation, and cancer in more detail.

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Coordinating cell proliferation and differentiation: Antagonism between cell cycle regulators and cell type-specific gene expression

Suzan Ruijtenberg, Sander van den Heuvel (2016)

ABSTRACT Cell proliferation and differentiation show a remarkable inverse relationship. Precursor cells continue division before acquiring a fully differentiated state, while terminal differentiation usually coincides with proliferation arrest and permanent exit from the division cycle. Mechanistic insight in the temporal coordination between cell cycle exit and differentiation has come from studies of cells in culture and genetic animal models. As initially described for skeletal muscle differentiation, temporal coordination involves mutual antagonism between cyclin-dependent kinases that promote cell cycle entry and transcription factors that induce tissue-specific gene expression. Recent insights highlight the contribution of chromatin-regulating complexes that act in conjunction with the transcription factors and determine their activity. In particular SWI/SNF chromatin remodelers contribute to dual regulation of cell cycle and tissue-specific gene expression during terminal differentiation. We review the concerted regulation of the cell cycle and cell type-specific transcription, and discuss common mutations in human cancer that emphasize the clinical importance of proliferation versus differentiation control.

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Ethnopharmacological survey of plants used in the traditional treatment of hypertension and diabetes in south-eastern Morocco (Errachidia province).

A Tahraoui, Alicia J. El Haj, Z Israili … (2007)

This survey was undertaken in the Errachidia province in south-eastern Morocco in order to inventory the main medicinal plants used in folk medicine to treat arterial hypertension and diabetes mellitus. Four hundred individuals who knew about and/or had used the medicinal plants for the indicated diseases, including some herbal healers, were interviewed throughout different regions of the province. The inventory of medicinal plants is summarized in a synoptic table, which contains the scientific, vernacular and common name of the plant, its ecological distribution, the part of the plant and the preparation used and the therapeutic indication. Extensive investigations have brought to light 64 medicinal plants belonging to 33 families; of these, 45 are used for diabetes, 36 for hypertension, and 18 for both diseases. Of these plants, 34% grow in the wild, 44% are cultivated, and 22% are not indigenous to the area and are brought from other parts of Morocco or from outside the country. The survey shows that 78% of the patients regularly use these medicinal plants. In this region, the most frequently used plants to treat diabetes include Ajuga iva, Allium cepa, Artemisia herba-alba, Carum carvi, Lepidium sativum, Nigella sativa, Olea europaea, Peganum harmala, Phoenix dactylifera, Rosmarinus officinalis, and Zygophyllum gaetulum, and those to treat hypertension include Ajuga iva, Allium cepa, Allium sativum, Artemisia herba-alba Asso, Carum carvi, Nigella sativa, Olea europea, Rosmarinus officinalis, Origanum majorana, Peganum harmala, and Phoenix dactylifera. The local people recognize the toxic plants and are very careful in using such plants, which are Citrullus colocynthis, Datura stramonium, Nerium oleander, Nigella sativa, Peganum harmala and Zygophyllum gaetulum. Our survey shows that traditional medicine in the south-eastern Moroccan population has not only survived but has thrived in the transcultural environment and intermixture of many ethnic traditions and beliefs.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Jorge M. Alves-Silva: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/426898/overview

Abderrahmane Romane: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/438967/overview

Thomas Efferth: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/15446/overview

Lígia Salgueiro: URI : http://loop.frontiersin.org/people/424787/overview

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Front Pharmacol

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Front Pharmacol

Journal ID (publisher-id): Front. Pharmacol.

Title: Frontiers in Pharmacology

Publisher: Frontiers Media S.A.

ISSN (Electronic): 1663-9812

Publication date (Electronic): 26 June 2017

Publication date Collection: 2017

Volume: 8

Electronic Location Identifier: 383

Affiliations

[1] ¹Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Life Sciences and Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra Coimbra, Portugal

[2] ²Laboratoire de Chimie Organique Appliquée, Département de Chimie, Faculté des Sciences (Semlalia), Université Cadi Ayyad Marrakech, Morocco

[3] ³Department of Pharmaceutical Biology, Institute of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Mainz, Germany

Author notes

Edited by: Salvador Cañigueral, University of Barcelona, Spain

Reviewed by: Javad Sharifi-Rad, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran; Víctor López, Universidad San Jorge, Spain

*Correspondence: Lígia Salgueiro ligia@ 123456ff.uc.pt

This article was submitted to Ethnopharmacology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology

Article

DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2017.00383

PMC ID: 5483438

PubMed ID: 28694778

SO-VID: 5bc6be2a-6deb-4968-96c8-3035ce44459d

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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

History

Date received : 30 March 2017

Date accepted : 01 June 2017

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Figures: 8, Tables: 1, Equations: 0, References: 171, Pages: 24, Words: 18499

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North African Medicinal Plants Traditionally Used in Cancer Therapy

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Most cited references 161

Signal transducer and activator of transcription-3, inflammation, and cancer: how intimate is the relationship?.

Coordinating cell proliferation and differentiation: Antagonism between cell cycle regulators and cell type-specific gene expression

Ethnopharmacological survey of plants used in the traditional treatment of hypertension and diabetes in south-eastern Morocco (Errachidia province).

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