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. 2022 Oct 25:2022:1645265.
doi: 10.1155/2022/1645265. eCollection 2022.

Moroccan Medicinal Plants Used to Treat Cancer: Ethnomedicinal Study and Insights into Pharmacological Evidence

Naoufal El Hachlafi  1 , Nesrine Benkhaira  1 , Mohamed Ferioun  1   2 , Fahd Kandsi  3 , Mohamed Jeddi  1 , Abderrahim Chebat  4 , Mohamed Addi  5 , Christophe Hano  6   7 , Kawtar Fikri-Benbrahim  1
Affiliations

Moroccan Medicinal Plants Used to Treat Cancer: Ethnomedicinal Study and Insights into Pharmacological Evidence

Naoufal El Hachlafi et al. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. .

Abstract

Cancer is one of the major medical challenges, with an unacceptably high death toll worldwide. In Morocco, medicinal plants continue to play a pivotal therapeutic role despite the development of modern sanitation systems. In the current study, an ethnobotanical survey was carried out at the Moroccan national institute of oncology, Rabat, and we aimed at (1) establishing an exhaustive inventory of indigenous knowledge of Moroccan medicinal plants used to manage cancer and (2) confirming the reported ethnopharmacological uses through bibliometric review. An ethnobotanical survey was conducted with 291 cancer patients at the Moroccan National Institute of Oncology, Rabat, during a period of 4 months, from February to May 2019, through semistructured interviews. Ethnobotanical indices, including informant consensus factor (FIC), use report (UR), relative frequency citation (RFC), botanical family use value (FUV), fidelity level (FL), and index of agreement on remedies (IAR), were employed in data analyses. The survey revealed that 39 medicinal plants belonging to 27 botanical families and 38 genera were used to treat cancer. The most used ethnospecies were Aristolochia longa with the highest RFC value (0.096), followed by Nigella sativa, Ephedra alata, Euphorbia resinifera, and Lavandula dentata, éwith RFC values of 0.072, 0.054, 0.044, and 0.044, respectively. In regard to the plant families, Lamiaceae contributed the highest number of plants with five species (FUV = 0.034), followed by Asteraceae (4 species; FUV = 0.020), and Fabaceae (4 species; FUV = 0.020). The leaves are the most popular plant part used by the studied population against cancer; otherwise, decoction was the most commonly used method for remedy preparation and the highest FIC was noticed for uterine cancer treatment (0.86). Considering these findings, further investigations into the recorded plant species should be performed to assess phytochemical constituents and pharmaceutical benefits in order to identify their active compounds for any drug formulations.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Geographical location of the study area.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Number of reported ethnospecies variations according to (a) age; (b) gender; and (c) education level.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Main ethnospecies used against cancer by the informants. (a) Olea europaea, (b) Nerium oleander, (c) Chenopodium ambrosioides, (d) Crocus sativus, (e) Nigella sativa, and (f) Aristolochia longa.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Biplot of principal components analysis for an ethnobotanical index of the reported species.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Number of ethnospecies in each family used to treat cancer.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Frequency of different plant parts used.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Frequency of different preparation methods.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Anticancer molecular targets of reported medicinal plants and their bioactive molecules.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Some phytochemical compounds with potent anticancer properties.
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