Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

An Overview of Ethiopian Traditional Medicinal Plants Used for Cancer Treatment

Worku Abebe

European Journal of Medicinal Plants · pp. 1–16 · Published 4 May 2016

10.9734/EJMP/2016/25670

Abstract

Traditional medicine plays a significant role in the healthcare of the majority of the people in developing countries, including Ethiopia, and medicinal plants provide valuable contribution to this practice. Emerging evidence indicates that cancer is becoming one of major health problems in Ethiopia. Relying primarily on field surveys, there have been recent efforts to assess the use of Ethiopian traditional medicinal plants for treatment of various diseases including cancer. The present paper is an overview of the literature reporting the use of these plants for cancer treatment.  It was reported that 30 species of plants were used for treating human cancer, with most of them belonging to different plant families. In addition to cancer, a large majority of the plants were also used against various types of other diseases. For most of the plants reported (73%), there was some kind of independent experimental/clinical evidence supporting their claimed anticancer activity. A small number of medicinal plants (13%) were mentioned to be used only in Ethiopia for cancer treatment, but no experimental/clinical confirmation was available. Despite certain limitations of the studies reviewed, the present paper provides useful information on the overall status of Ethiopian traditional medicinal plants as used for treatment of cancer. This information can be used for designing and conducting future research on this important subject.

Traditional medicine Ethiopia medicinal plants cancer anticancer effects

Cited by 20

Preparation, Characterization, and Anticancer Effects of Capsaicin-Loaded Nanoliposomes

Ali Al-Samydai, Walhan Alshaer, Emad A. S. Al-Dujaili · Nutrients · 2021

Traditional and Phytochemical Bases of Herbs, Shrubs, Climbers, and Trees from Ethiopia for Their Anticancer Response

Limenew Abate, Mesfin Getachew Tadesse, Archana Bachheti · BioMed Research International · 2022

ZnO Nanoparticles Synthesized using Aerial Extract of Ranunculus multifidus Plant: Antibacterial and Antioxidant Activity

Terfo Yilma, Mikyas Kassaw, H. C. Ananda Murthy · Journal of Nanomaterials · 2023

From Ethnomedicine to Plant Biotechnology and Machine Learning: The Valorization of the Medicinal Plant Bryophyllum sp.

Pascual García-Pérez, Eva Lozano-Milo, Mariana Landin · Pharmaceuticals · 2020

Antidiabetic Activity of Isolated Compounds of Crinum solapurense Leaves Extract in Albino Wistar Rats

Sunayana Mali, Anup Kumar Chakraborty, Reenu Yadav · International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Nanotechnology(IJPSN) · 2024

<p>In vivo Hepatoprotective and in vitro Radical Scavenging Activities of Extracts of <em>Rumex abyssinicus</em> Jacq. Rhizome</p>

Betelhem Anteneh Adamu, Yohannes Kelifa Emiru, Biruk Sintayehu · Journal of Experimental Pharmacology · 2020

Chemical Studies and Antibacterial Activity of the Root of Rumex abyssinicus

Sisay Awoke, Chalachew Gedamu · Earthline Journal of Chemical Sciences · 2020

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

0

Page views

0

PDF downloads

0

Outbound clicks

20

Citations

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

No views recorded yet.

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

No traffic recorded yet.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.