MEDICINAL PLANTS FROM THE HIMALAYAS: INSIGHTS INTO THEIR ANTICANCER EFFECTS

Management of cancer is a challenge to the modern system of medical practice despite of having an effective chemotherapy, radiotherapy, nuclear therapy and Surgery. While effective, these treatments have limited acceptance due to safety concerns. Herbal medicines, known for their minimal adverse effects, have shown promise in disease management and can provide high-quality nutritional and raw ingredients. Herbal therapies are also considered potential complementary treatments alongside conventional methods. The study was conducted by systematically reviewing the literature of various databases such as PubMed, Google scholar, Science direct and Wiley. In this study 4036 articles were reported from these tools and only 92 articles included after the exclusion due to duplication, irrelevant, non-full-text article, qualitative and quantitative analysis. Many herbal medicines described in this article contain numerous of these antioxidants. Recent researches showed the anti-oxidative and superoxide scavenging activities of individual active components of herbal medicine for their inhibitory activities on lipid peroxidation and anti-cancer properties. Individual herbal medicines show antipyretic, analgesic and anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects. Numerous in vitro studies of herbal medicine on different cell lines and in vivo study of herbal medicine have been reported. However, the mechanisms of actions remain unclear. This review aims to give an overview on the recent development of herbal medicine in the prevention and treatment of cancer. The report covers the possible mechanism of action of some of the herbal medicine. In addition, the common properties of herbal medicine are described. Finally, the study sheds lights on the pharmacological applications of herbal medicine in the treatment of cancer and its potential use as anti-cancer agents.