In vitro cytotoxic activity of african plants: a review

Canga, Isabel; Vita, Pedro; Oliveira, Ana Isabel; Castro, María Ángeles; Pinho, Cláudia

Publication

In vitro cytotoxic activity of african plants: a review

2022-08-05Journal article

dc.contributor.author	Canga, Isabel
dc.contributor.author	Vita, Pedro
dc.contributor.author	Oliveira, Ana Isabel
dc.contributor.author	Castro, María Ángeles
dc.contributor.author	Pinho, Cláudia
dc.date.accessioned	2022-11-11T16:55:13Z
dc.date.available	2022-11-11T16:55:13Z
dc.date.issued	2022-08-05
dc.description.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.	pt_PT
dc.description.version	info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion	pt_PT
dc.identifier.citation	Canga, I.; Vita, P.; Oliveira, A.I.; Castro, M.Á.; Pinho, C. In Vitro Cytotoxic Activity of African Plants: A Review. Molecules 2022, 27, 4989. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27154989	pt_PT
dc.identifier.doi	10.3390/molecules27154989	pt_PT
dc.identifier.eissn	1420-3049
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/21008
dc.language.iso	eng	pt_PT
dc.peerreviewed	yes	pt_PT
dc.publisher	MDPI	pt_PT
dc.relation.publisherversion	https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/27/15/4989	pt_PT
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	pt_PT
dc.subject	In vitro	pt_PT
dc.subject	Cytotoxicity	pt_PT
dc.subject	African plants	pt_PT
dc.subject	Cancer	pt_PT
dc.subject	Cell lines	pt_PT
dc.title	In vitro cytotoxic activity of african plants: a review	pt_PT
dc.type	journal article
dspace.entity.type	Publication
oaire.citation.endPage	18	pt_PT
oaire.citation.startPage	1	pt_PT
oaire.citation.title	Molecules	pt_PT
oaire.citation.volume	27	pt_PT
person.familyName	Oliveira
person.familyName	Pinho
person.givenName	Ana Isabel
person.givenName	Cláudia
person.identifier.ciencia-id	9212-F501-E9EF
person.identifier.ciencia-id	8B1B-A0D9-B6E4
person.identifier.orcid	0000-0003-4420-6476
person.identifier.orcid	0000-0002-3157-3712
rcaap.rights	openAccess	pt_PT
rcaap.type	article	pt_PT
relation.isAuthorOfPublication	4b3fe293-2740-469f-97d3-99d0b107b5e0
relation.isAuthorOfPublication	01c994b8-cb20-43a8-947c-d2b978283944
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery	4b3fe293-2740-469f-97d3-99d0b107b5e0