Jaradat Nidal Amin, Al-Ramahi Rowa, Zaid Abdel Naser, Ayesh Ola Ibrahim, Eid Ahmad Mustafa
Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, P.O. Box 7, Nablus, Palestine.
BMC Complement Altern Med. 2016 Mar 8;16:93. doi: 10.1186/s12906-016-1070-8.
Plants have been the primary source of medicines since life on earth; more than 50 % of existing cancer treatments are derived from plants.
An ethnopharmacological survey of herbal remedies used in cancer treatment was carried out in the West Bank/ Palestine. A questionnaire was distributed to one hundred and fifty herbalists, traditional healers and rural dwellers. Collected information included the names of plants, the used parts, types of cancers for which these plants were used and also their methods of preparation. To identify the most important species used, Factor of informant's consensus (F(ic)), Fidelity level (Fl) and the Use-value (UV) were calculated.
Collected data has shown that 72 plants are utilized for treatment of cancer, belonging to 44 families; from them Compositae and Lamiaceae were the most common. Leaves and fruits were the most commonly used parts, while decoctions, infusions and syrups were the main methods of preparation. Lung cancer was the most common type of cancer treated with these plants and Ephedra alata was the most commonly used plant for treatment of cancer in Palestine. The Fic was high for all the plants; Fl was 100% for many plants, the highest UV (0.72) was for Ephedra alata.
This study showed that many herbal remedies are still used by herbalists in Palestine for treatment of cancer; some of them have been approved scientifically while others are not. A combined effort between informants and scientific institutions working in this field can help in the discovery of new anticancer agents. Moreover, scientists must explore the most suitable method of extraction, formulation and dose determination in order to achieve the best benefits from these herbals.
自地球上有生命以来，植物一直是药物的主要来源；超过50%的现有癌症治疗药物源自植物。
在约旦河西岸/巴勒斯坦对用于癌症治疗的草药进行了民族药理学调查。向150名草药医生、传统治疗师和农村居民发放了问卷。收集的信息包括植物名称、使用部位、使用这些植物治疗的癌症类型以及它们的制备方法。为了确定最重要的使用物种，计算了信息提供者共识因子（F(ic)）、保真度水平（Fl）和使用价值（UV）。
收集的数据表明，有72种植物用于治疗癌症，分属44个科；其中菊科和唇形科最为常见。叶子和果实是最常用的部位，而煎剂、浸剂和糖浆是主要的制备方法。肺癌是用这些植物治疗的最常见癌症类型，而翼麻黄是巴勒斯坦治疗癌症最常用的植物。所有植物的Fic都很高；许多植物的Fl为100%，翼麻黄的UV最高（0.72）。
本研究表明，巴勒斯坦的草药医生仍在使用许多草药治疗癌症；其中一些已得到科学认可，而另一些则未得到认可。该领域的信息提供者和科研机构共同努力有助于发现新的抗癌药物。此外，科学家必须探索最合适的提取、配方和剂量确定方法，以便从这些草药中获得最大益处。
