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Ethnomedicinal survey of folkloric plants used in managing breast cancers by the traditional medical practitioners of North‐east Nigeria (LB240)
Author(s) -
Mohammed Zainab,
Hamza Hajja,
Daja Aliyu,
Gidado Abubakar,
Hussaini Isa
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.28.1_supplement.lb240
Subject(s) - ethnomedicine , breast cancer , possession (linguistics) , poverty , traditional medicine , medicine , alternative medicine , developing country , population , medicinal plants , family medicine , socioeconomics , geography , cancer , economic growth , environmental health , sociology , pathology , linguistics , philosophy , economics
Cancer is a major leading cause of death in the world today. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in 140 countries. The widespread use of medicinal plants is not limited to the developing countries, there’s a renewed interest by the public and scientific organisations concerning plants and cure for diseases. The increasing cost of modern health care has made the role of ethnomedicine a very important one. A majority of the Nigerian population use traditional medicine for relief from various ailments largely due to inadequate medical facilities, high poverty rate and many other socio‐ economic/ socio‐ cultural factors. Local herbalists claim the possession of remedies useful in curing different cancer types. However, such knowledge is secretive and kept within close family circle. This work is aimed at providing an inventory of North East Nigerian plants with anti‐ breast cancer potentials for future verification and scientific validation. Semi‐structured questionnaire and oral interview were used to obtain relevant ethnomedicinal data. Twenty five different plant species were identified to possess possible anti‐ breast cancer potentials. Plant names, family, part used, relevant pharmacologic activities and pictures of plants were documented.