An Overview of Ethiopian Traditional Medicinal Plants Used for Cancer Treatment

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.