Preface

Cancer has become one of the major causes of death in both developed and developing countries. This disease is a result of gene mutation, which causes deformation of normal cells. It is characterized by its ability to metastasize to other parts of the body. Although a large collection of effective chemotherapeutic agents has been discovered and developed over the last 50 years, advanced metastasized cancer is still untreatable. Besides, the usage of these treatments is found to cause many critical side effects. Therefore, the demand for new, safe, and effective treatments that can significantly prevent, delay, and/or cure cancer is growing. Many types of new therapies have emerged and some of them use extracts from plants that have shown very promising anticancer properties. Recently, some plants have been considered as good sources for new anticancer treatments due to their multiple chemical compounds. Many researchers have recommended that future studies should focus more on plants as a source of safe and effective anticancer treatments and to detect their active ingredients and mechanisms of action. Therefore, this book focuses on clarifying the anticancer effects (i.e., apoptotic, antiproliferative, antimetastatic, antiangiogenic) and mechanisms of most of the medicinal plants found in the world against solid and/or hematological cancers.

**II**

**Chapter 8 127**

Medicinal Plants and Cancer Treatment **139**

**Chapter 9 141**

**Chapter 10 153**

**Chapter 11 175**

Pharmacological Activities and Phytochemicals of *Etlingera pavieana*

Herbal Remedies for Breast Cancer Prevention and Treatment

Chinese Herbal Medicine and Its Application for Female Cancer *by Rongyun Wang, Qiuhua Sun, Yifan Lin, Ling Wang, Yuan Liu,* 

*by Yahyea Baktiar Laskar, Romen Meitei Lourembam* 

(Pierre ex Gagnep) R.M.Sm

Plants and Cancer Treatment

*and Pranab Behari Mazumder*

*Chi Chiu Wang and Lu Li*

*by Bassam Hassan*

**Section 2**

*by Klaokwan Srisook and Ekaruth Srisook*

**Bassam Abdul Rasool Hassan, PhD** Senior Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy, Al-Rafidain University College, Baghdad, Iraq

**1**

Section 1

Pharmacological

Properties of Some

Medicinal Plants

Section 1

Pharmacological Properties of Some Medicinal Plants

**3**

side effects [4].

**Chapter 1**

Plants

**Abstract**

discussed.

**1. Introduction**

Analgesic and Anti-Inflammatory

Medicinal plants continue to be used in various cultures of the world as safe therapeutic agents against various issues including pain and inflammation which underlie almost every disease process. In Ghanaian traditional medicine, various parts of several plants have been used alone or in combination of therapies for the treatment of various painful inflammatory conditions. In this chapter, the anti-inflammatory and analgesic (antinociceptive) properties of selected medicinal plants from Ghana are reviewed. Evidence of pharmacological activities of crude extracts and fractions in *in-vitro* and *in-vivo* models, bioactive anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive compounds isolated as well as possible mechanisms of anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive action are

**Keywords:** inflammation, nociception, analgesia, herbal medicine, Ghana

Inflammation is a complex defensive and protective response of living tissues to injury, irritation or infection which is accompanied by typical symptoms of pain, swelling, redness and fever. It is a mechanism by which the body identifies and neutralises noxious stimuli by increasing the blood flow to the site of tissue injured. Inflammation is a defensive mechanism but the complexity of events as well as the mediators released often result in the induction or aggravation of several disease conditions [1, 2]. Painful conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, colitis and hepatitis as well as other chronic diseases including cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases are all conditions whose pathophysiology involves inflammation [3]. These diseases impose a huge social and economic burden on individual victims, their families, and societies as a whole. Moreover, they can cause disability, impairing the social function of people, reducing their quality of life and sometimes resulting in death [2]. Millions of people suffering from different types of painful inflammatory conditions wish to find effective interventions with fewer or no

Effect of Ghanaian Medicinal

*Evelyn Asante-Kwatia, Abraham Yeboah Mensah* 

*and Michael Frimpong Baidoo*

### **Chapter 1**
