MALAYSIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS’ POTENTIAL FOR BREAST CANCER THERAPY

Abstract

Objective: This review focused on Malaysian medicinal plants that have been evaluated and pose potentials to treat breast cancer.Methods: Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, Biomed, ResearchGate, academia.edu, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, and Ingenta databases were searched for this review and studies reported between January 1st, 2010 and June 30th, 2016.Results: A total of 105 plants species representing 54 different families and 79 genera were reviewed. 97% of the plants were tested using MCF-7 and MDA-231 breast cancer cell lines and exhibited most significant in vitro anticancer activity, and 3% were tested using another type of breast cancer cell lines. Most of the bioactive compounds of the medicinal plants that exhibited good activity (IC50 values <120 μg/mL) are a group of phenols, alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, and saponins. Induction of apoptosis was found to be the significant cell death pathway.Conclusion: This article reviews the available literature concerning research on anti-breast cancer plants. Furthermore, identification and characterization of active components and toxicology evaluation also need to be studied in details and also point out their clinical trials.