Saudi anti-human cancer plants database (SACPD): A collection of plants with anti-human cancer activities

Abstract

Several anticancer drugs have been developed from natural products such as plants. Successful experiments in inhibiting the growth of human cancer cell lines using Saudi plants were published over the last three decades. Up to date, there is no Saudi anticancer plants database as a comprehensive source for the interesting data generated from these experiments. Therefore, there was a need for creating a database to collect, organize, search and retrieve such data. As a result, the current paper describes the generation of the Saudi anti-human cancer plants database (SACPD). The database contains most of the reported information about the naturally grow¬ ing Saudi anticancer plants. SACPD comprises the scientific and local names of 91 plant species that grow naturally in Saudi Arabia. These species belong to 38 different taxonomic families. In Addition, 18 species that represent16 family of medicinal plants and are intensively sold in the local markets in Saudi Arabia were added to the database. The website provides interesting details, including plant part containing the anticancer bioactive compounds, plants locations and cancer/cell type against which they exhibit their anticancer activity. Our survey revealed that breast, liver and leukemia were the most studied cancer cell lines in Saudi Arabia with percentages of 27%, 19% and 15%, respectively. The current SACPD rep¬ resents a nucleus around which more development efforts can expand to accommodate all future submissions about new Saudi plant species with anticancer activities. SACPD will provide an excellent starting point for researchers and pharmaceutical compa¬ nies who are interested in developing new anticancer drugs. SACPD is available online at https://teeqrani1.wixsite.com/sapd.