ReviewMolecules (Basel, Switzerland)2022
In Vitro Cytotoxic Activity of African Plants: A Review.
Review in Molecules (Basel, Switzerland), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers.
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Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Antigonococcal Activity and Cytotoxicity Screening of Three Ziziphus Species Indigenous to South Africa.Chemistry & biodiversity · 2026Article
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- Article
- From tradition to evidence: medicinal plants used for childhood diseases in the Ehlanzeni District, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Review
- Simultaneous synthesis of hydroxyapatite/chitosan composite from crab shells and its polycaprolactone-blended scaffolds for enhanced bone regeneration.RSC advances · 2025Article
- Effects of Common Fig (International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Cytotoxic and Antimicrobial Activity of theMolecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- In vitro antiproliferative effects of green synthesized silver nanoparticles from Brassica carinata microgreens on DU-145 prostate cancer cells and In vivo safety assessment.Journal, genetic engineering & biotechnology · 2025Article
- Article
- Investigating the Chemical-Biological Link inFood science & nutrition · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In African countries, cancer not only is a growing problem, but also a challenge because available funding and resources are limited. Therefore, African medicinal plants play a significant role in folk medicine and some of them are traditionally used for the treatment of cancer. The high mortality rate and adverse effects associated with cancer treatments have encouraged the search for novel plant-based drugs, thus, some African plants have been studied in recent years as a source of molecules with proven cytotoxicity. This review aims to discuss the cytotoxic activity, in vitro, of African plant crude extracts against cancer cell lines. For the period covered by this review (2017−2021) twenty-three articles were found and analyzed, which included a total of 105 plants, where the main cell lines used were those of breast cancer (MCF-7 and MDA-MBA-231) and colorectal cancer (HCT-116 and Caco-2), which are among the most prevalent cancers in Africa. In these studies, the plant crude extracts were obtained using different solvents, such as ethanol, methanol, or water, with variable results and IC50 values ranging from <20 µg/mL to >200 µg/mL. Water is the preferred solvent for most healers in African countries, however, in some studies, the aqueous extracts were the least potent. Apoptosis and the induction of cell cycle arrest may explain the cytotoxic activity seen in many of the plant extracts studied. Considering that the criteria of cytotoxicity activity for the crude extracts, as established by the American National Cancer Institute (NCI), is an IC50 < 30 μg/mL, we conclude that many extracts from the African flora could be a promising source of cytotoxic agents.
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