American Journal of Ethnomedicine

Ethnopharmacological profile of traditional plants used in Morocco by cancer patients as herbal therapeutics

7^th Edition of International Conference on Pharmacognosy and Medicinal Plants
March 11-12, 2019 London, UK

Ait Laaradia M, Oufquir S, Sokar Z and Chait A

Universite Cadi Ayyad, Morocco

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Am J Ethnomed

DOI: 10.21767/2348-9502-C1-009

Abstract

Cancer is one of the major causes of mortality throughout the world. In Morocco, cancer patients are increasing, which indicate that by the year 2020 it is predicted that cancer will be causing seven out of 10 deaths. To reduce this high mortality rate, medical research now turns to the discovery of new molecules that will help to develop natural anticancer drugs. The current study was designed as a prospective randomized investigation on different plants used by the patients of a center for cancer treatment in Morocco. This study was based on a sample of 600 patients from the Cancer Institution in Marrakech in a period from September 2017 to march 2018. Among the investigated cases, 201 patients (39%) were identified to regularly use medical plants and 160 patients among them use plants along with medical treatment. While 152 patients used traditional medicine before using conventional modern drugs. Fifty-five plants have been cited during this study, of which Aristolochia longa, Trigonella foenum-graecum, Cassia absus and Nigella sativa are the mostly used medicinal plants. Cross-references of all plants identified in the current scientific literature have revealed species that have not been documented for cancer treatment to date. Particular interest has been given to the use of plants for the treatment of cancer in children and adults. This data shows that phytotherapy has always been practiced in Morocco.