Background and objectives Medicinal plants have been recognized as a promising alternative treatment against some types of cancer, being rich sources of effective biochemical agents. The aim of this study, therefore, was to gather, through a systematic literature review, articles related to plants from the Brazilian Cerrado biome that have an action on different tumor cells.
Methods Different keywords were used in the search mechanisms of Pubmed, Scielo, Science Direct, Scopus, and Lilacs databases. Of the studies found, titles that did not reflect the purpose of this review, those that did not provide access to the full text, and those that were published before 2005 were excluded. Articles referring to the activity of Cerrado plants in tumor cells published in the last sixteen years were selected, totaling thirty-nine articles. Registration number of this review: #CRD42020205579.
Results The extracts from the studied plants demonstrated significant antiproliferative effects against several tumor cell lines. 39 species of plants were identified belonging to the families: Combretaceae, Annonaceae, Celastraceae, Verbenaceae, Solanaceae, Myrtaceae, Rubiaceae, Bignoniaceae, Erythroxylaceae, Sapotaceae, Asteraceae, Elaeocarpaceae, Apocynaceae, Anacardiaceae, Calophyllaceae, Lythraceae, Mimosaceae, and Morseraceae. The extracts were obtained from different parts of the plants and different fractions were used.
Conclusion It can be concluded that the Cerrado contains a wide variety of plants with antitumor actions, and further studies are needed to discover other species with anticancer potential, in addition to in vivo studies.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank to Bauru School of Dentistry and the Uni-versity of São Paulo.
Funding
We would like to thank Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvi-mento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for its financial support (#308897/2021-8). This study was financed in part by the Coorde-nação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) Finance Code - 001.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interests.
Author contributions
Study concept and design (GSNO, RCO), acquisition of data (GSNO, CS), analysis and interpretation of data (GSNO), drafting of the manuscript (GSNO, CS), critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content (GSNO, CS, RCO). All authors have made a significant contribution to this study and have ap-proved the final manuscript.
Data sharing statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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