A review of various medicinal plants and its effect on breast cancer cells

Introduction: For centuries, plants are the main source for drug discovery. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. Risk of invasive breast cancer is 1 in 8 women during their lives. So far, many preventive and therapeutic effects of medicinal plants in the treatment of various diseases has been reported. In the present study, effect of medicinal plants including Urtica dioica extract, Silybum marianum, Olea europaea, Camellia sinensis, Taverniera spartea, Ecballium elaterium, Atropa belladonna, Sinapis arvensis, Aristolochia, Hyoscyamus niger, carica papaya and their components on breast cancer cells is reviewed. Methods: searching online articles was conducted in English and Persian from different databases. Results: The results show that mentioned medicinal plants and their components have beneficial effect in prevention of breast cancer. Although few studies have been conducted about therapeutic effects of medicinal plants on breast cancer cells, the results are promising. The anti-cancer effects ofmedicinal plants including Urtica dioica extract, Silybum marianum, Olea europaea, Camellia sinensis, Taverniera spartea, Ecballium elaterium, Atropa belladonna, Sinapis arvensis, Aristolochia, Hyoscyamus niger, carica papaya and their components in animal and human studies were evaluated, and their inhibitory effect on the growth of cancer cells were approved. Conclusion: The results of previous studies confirmed the effectiveness of medicinal herbs against breast cancer cells, which are satisfying because of their low cost, popularity of these herbal supplements in the diet. Further studies in this field in order to determine the mechanism of their action and evaluatetheir active compounds is necessary and important.

Keywords:

breast cancer , medicinal plants , traditional medicine