The role of selected plant families with dietary Ethnomedicinal species used as anticancer

The uses of ethnomedicinal plants for human healthcare still remain the most widely used medication system in developing and least developed nation. This article reviews the research on use of ethnomedicinal plants as anticancer. The investigations focused primarily on dietary ethnomedicinal species reported with anticancer bioactive compounds distributed from 24 plant families. Population rise, insufficient supply of drugs, unaffordable cost of treatments, side effects of several allopathic drugs and development of resistance to currently used drugs for diseases have led to increased emphasis on the use of plant materials as a source of medicines for a wide variety of human ailments. As such ethnomedicinal plants have been used to cure cancer since the conventional therapeutic and surgical approaches have not been able to control the incidence of most cancer types. The article unveils the most recent studies on dietary ethnomedicinal species and their families used to treat various types of cancer. The article also reveals the most up to date findings in understanding of biological significance of their bioactive compounds used as anticancer.