Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Anti-cancer effects of Vernonia amygdalina: A systematic review

Julia Joseph¹, Vuanghao Lim¹, Heshu Sulaiman Rahman^2,3, Hemn Hassan Othman⁴, Nozlena Abdul Samad¹

¹Integrative Medicine Cluster, Institut Perubatan dan Pergigian Termaju (IPPT), Sains@BERTAM, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 13200 Kepala Batas, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia; ²Department of Clinic and Internal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sulaimani; ³Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, College of Science, Komar University of Science and Technology; ⁴Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, University of Sulaimani, Sulaymaniyah, Republic of Iraq.

For correspondence:- Nozlena Samad Email: nozlena@usm.my

Accepted: 17 July 2020 Published: 31 August 2020

Citation: Joseph J, Lim V, Rahman HS, Othman HH, Samad NA. Anti-cancer effects of Vernonia amygdalina: A systematic review. Trop J Pharm Res 2020; 19(8):1775-1784 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v19i8.29

© 2020 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To systematically review all the studies that have addressed the anti-cancer activities of the VA leaf extract in vitro to determine the strength of evidence of its anti-cancer effects and whether it can be used as an effective cancer therapy.

Methods: The databases of Scopus, Science Direct, PubMed, Springer, and Directory of Open Access Journals were searched for relevant articles. Only articles published in the English language from January 2000 to November 2018 were selected for full-text retrieval and review, before being included in the final review.

Results: From a total of 28 articles identified for full-text retrieval, only 17 fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The papers reviewed showed that VA decreases cell viability, inhibits DNA synthesis and causes DNA damage in cancer cells. VA also induces apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in cancer cells via gene regulation. All in all, there is evidence showing that VA possesses time- and concentration-dependent anti-cancer activity.

Conclusion: The VA leaf extract has the potential to be developed into cancer therapeutics. However, more research is needed on its effect on normal cells before VA is developed into a cancer therapeutic.

Keywords: Vernonia amygdalina, Anti-cancer effect, DNA damage, Apoptosis