Estonian folk traditional experiences on natural anticancer remedies: From past to the future

Abstract

Context: Despite diagnostic and therapeutic advancements, the burden of cancer is still increasing worldwide. Toxicity of current chemotherapeutics to normal cells and their resistance to tumor cells highlights the urgent need for new drugs with minimal adverse side effects. The use of natural anticancer agents has entered into the area of cancer research and increased efforts are being made to isolate bioactive products from medicinal plants. Objective: To lead the search for plants with potential cytotoxic activity, ethnopharmacological knowledge can give a great contribution. Therefore, the attention of this review is devoted to the natural remedies traditionally used for the cancer treatment by Estonian people over a period of almost 150 years. Methods: Two massive databases, the first one stored in the Estonian Folklore Archives and the second one in the electronic database HERBA (http://herba.folklore.ee/), containing altogether more than 30 000 ethnomedicinal texts were systematically reviewed to compile data about the Estonian folk traditional experiences on natural anticancer remedies.

Phytochemical Profile and Pharmacological Activities of Water and Hydroethanolic Dry Extracts of Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull. Herb

“…It is interesting to mention that C. vulgaris is known in Estonian ethnomedicine for its sedative and anti-diabetes activities, but it does not have the anti-cancer activity found in the other 44 species [ 23 , 24 , 25 ]. Hypericum perforatum, Leonurus cardiaca and Piper methysticum are well known natural antidepressants and/or anxiolytics, and also the species Epimedium L. genus (Berberidaceae) belonging to the Chinese pharmacopoeia possesses antidepressant activity [ 26 , 27 , 28 ].…”

Sensitivity of Multiresistant Bacteria and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus to ethanolic root extract of Raphanus sativus

“…Besides being a food crop, radish also has various medicinal actions. It has been used in Estonian ethnopharmacology for relief of tumor symptoms (Sak et al, 2014), in India for issues like urinary problems and piles (Ahmad and Beg 2001) while in Mexican traditional medicine black radish roots are used for the treatment of cholesterol gallstones, and for decreasing serum lipid levels (Castro-Torres et al, 2012). It has potential for probiotic usage due to the presence of lactic acid bacterial strains such as Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus fermentum which could be isolated from fermented radishes (Damodharan et al, 2015).…”

Selectivity of Pinus sylvestris extract and essential oil to estrogen-insensitive breast cancer cells Pinus sylvestris against cancer cells

“…There are no reports available about the potential anticancer action of extracts from Scots pine ( Pinus sylvestris L.) growing natively in Europe and Asia and being a very common coniferous tree in Estonia. [ 22 ] For this reason, we evaluated the effects prepared from needles of P. sylvestris on various human cancer cell lines, and performed for the first time the comparative analysis of action of pine extract on estrogen receptor positive and negative breast carcinoma cells.…”