Some anticancer medicinal plants of foreign origin

An attempt has been made to review some medicinal plants used for the prevention and treatment of cancer in foreign countries. Information on the botanical names of plants with family names, parts used and their main active components, and original/native place of these plants have been collected from the literature. This article considers 62 medicinal plants of foreign origin. These plants belong to 40 families, and their different parts ( root, stem, bark, corm, bulb, leaf, fruit and seed) or the whole plants/herbs are used. The extracts or decoctions of these are generally used. The medicinal plants contain several phytochemicals such as vitamins ( A, C, E, K), carotenoids, terpenoids, flavonoids, polyphenols, alkaloids, tannins, saponins, enzymes, minerals, etc. These phytochemicals possess antioxidant activities, which prevent or can be used in the treatment of many diseases, including cancer. Herbal drugs are also known to have good immunomodulatory properties. These act by stimulating both non-specific and specific immunity.