Medicinal plants used for complementary and alternative cancer therapy in katsina state, northwestern nigeria

Abstract

In Katsina State, Nigeria, medicinal plants are widely used for the management of cancer. The usage is however, poorly documented. In this study an ethnobotanical survey of medicinal plants used for the management of cancer in Katsina State, using semi-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to present the data on demographic information of the respondents. Relative Frequency of Citation (RFC) and Use Consensus Value (UCV) were used to analyze the popularity of the cited species. Among the 180 respondents, 159 (88%) were males and 21 (12%) females. The majority of the respondents (32.7%) were between 61-75 years of age. Most of the respondents (85%) were married. Majority (68%) of the respondents had no formal education, while 123 (68.88%) of the respondents were herbalists. Fifty six (56) medicinal plants distributed in 22 families were documented. Most of the species belong to Fabaceae family with 21 representatives and Diospyros mespiliformis had the highest RFC and UCV of 0.15 and 0.30, respectively, while the least RFC and UCV were seen in Tamarindus indica with 0.09 and 0.18, respectively. Of the 57 species, 46 (81%) were trees and 11 (19%) shrubs. Most of the medications (63%) are prepared as decoction and powder. Some of the cited species are utilized for the same purpose in different parts of the world and potent anticancer potentials of some of the cited species have since been unravelled. Further studies aimed at scientifically authenticating and isolating compound with anticancer potentials from the documented species would be highly valuable.