Documentation on Medicinal Plants Sold in Markets in Abeokuta, Nigeria

Purpose: To document the medicinal values, local names, method of preparation, dosage forms and parts of common medicinal plants sold in some markets in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Methods: Ethnobotanical data were collected by oral interview and with the aid of a structured questionnaire administered to men, women and young girls. The data from respondents from the five local markets surveyed were documented. Results: The results show that a total of 60 medicinal plant species are commonly used by the people of Abeokuta in their traditional health care system. Most of the plant materials were in dried form and sold singly or in combination with other plants and are used in the treatment of various ailments such as malaria, hypertension, typhoid, jaundice, hyperthermia, skin irritations, dysentery, anaemia, gonorrhea, cough, measles and fibroid. A majority of the plants were trees. The respondents were women (64.3 %), young girls (28.5 %) and men (7.14 %). Conclusion: The findings support the need to encourage domestication and cultivation of medicinal plants as well as put in place conservation measures to ensure sustainable source of medicinal plants

Microbial load of some medicinal plants sold in some local markets in Abeokuta, Nigeria

Purpose: To evaluate the microbial load on 17 randomly selected plant samples from 60 ethnobotanically collected medicinal plants from five local markets in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. Method: The pour plate method was used to cultivate serially diluted portions of the medicinal plant samples investigated. Enumeration of bacteria was carried out on nutrient agar (NA) while that of fungi was effected on Sabouraud agar (SA). Results: The identified microbial isolates include 12 bacterial and 6 fungal genera. The mean heterotrophic bacteria counts of the different herbal samples ranged from 1.3 × 10 5 cfu/g ( Cnestis ferruginea ) to 6.7 × 10 6 cfu/g ( Daniellia oliveri ), while total fungal propagule counts ranged from 0.0 × 10 1 cfu/g ( Terminalia superba , Cola gigantea , Rauwolfia vomitoria , Zingiber officinale and Argemone mexicana ) to 7.1 × 10 6 cfu/g ( Nesogordonia papaverifera ). The synopsis and frequency (prevalence rate) of microbial species isolation showed that Bacillus spp. (82.4 %) and Mucor spp. (47.1 %) had the highest prevalence rates among bacteria and fungi, respectively. Conclusion: The findings from this study emphasized the need for constant quality assessment of herbal drugs on sale in order to ensure the production of therapeutic products suitable for human consumption

Unravelling the Anticancer Mechanisms of Traditional Herbal Medicines with Metabolomics

Metabolite profiling of cancer cells presents many opportunities for anticancer drug discovery. The Chinese, Indian, and African flora, in particular, offers a diverse source of anticancer therapeutics as documented in traditional folklores. In-depth scientific information relating to mechanisms of action, quality control, and safety profile will promote their extensive usage in cancer therapy. Metabolomics may be a more holistic strategy to gain valuable insights into the anticancer mechanisms of action of plants but this has remained largely unexplored. This review, therefore, presents the available metabolomics studies on the anticancer effects of herbal medicines commonly used in Africa and Asia. In addition, we present some scientifically understudied ‘candidate plants’ for cancer metabolomics studies and highlight the relevance of metabolomics in addressing other challenges facing the drug development of anticancer herbs. Finally, we discussed the challenges of using metabolomics to uncover the underlying mechanisms of potential anticancer herbs and the progress made in this regard

Twelve-month observational study of children with cancer in 41 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic

Childhood cancer is a leading cause of death. It is unclear whether the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted childhood cancer mortality. In this study, we aimed to establish all-cause mortality rates for childhood cancers during the COVID-19 pandemic and determine the factors associated with mortality