Anticancer Plants Naturally Growing in Al-Baha Region, Saudi Arabia

Medicinal plants have traditionally been used worldwide, including in Saudi Arabia. Globally, medicinal plants have received much attention because of their promising potential for use as anticancer treatments for different types of cancer, and their phytochemicals play a major role in biological reactions, such as in mediating cytotoxicity against cancer cell lines. This review highlights some important genera that belong to different naturally occurring plant families in the Al-Baha region and describes their importance in cancer treatment. To date, the anticancer effects of some medicinal plants that grow naturally in the Al-Baha region have been used in cancer treatment. Various electronic databases from 1990 to 2020 were searched for articles that reported the efficacy of 19 local plants against a wide range of cancer cell lines. Data collected included the plant part used, method of extraction, type of cancer cell line, and the effectiveness of the extract as an anticancer agent. Each of the 11 plant families (Amaranthaceae, Leguminosae, Apocynaceae, Vitaceae, Burseraceae, Capparaceae, Compositae, Curcurbitaceae, Oleaceae, Papaveraceae, and Rhamnaceae) included in this review had at least one genus that was considered a source of anticancer agents. Twenty-one plants from the Al-Baha region were assessed for their anticancer activities worldwide. The extracts of all tested plants showed significant results on different cell lines, and these important plant families have various conventional and novel uses in daily life.