title: Medicinal plants used in Mexican traditional medicine for the treatment of colorectal cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cancer cases numbers are increasing worldwide positioning this disease as the second cause of mortality for both sexes. Medicinal plants have been used in the fight against cancer as the basis for drug discovery and nowadays more than 70% of anticancer drugs have a natural origin. Mexico is regarded for its cultural and biological diversity, which is reflected in the vast traditional knowledge of herbal remedies. In this review we examined herbal remedies employed in colorectal cancer treatment (CRC).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The goal of this work was to gather scientific reports of plants used in Mexican traditional medicine for CRC treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a search on scientific literature databases using as keywords: "colon cancer", "gastric cancer", "cytotoxicity", studies "in vitro and in vivo", in combination with "Mexican medicinal plants" or "Mexican herbal remedies". The selection criteria of cytotoxic activity for extracts or pure compounds was based on the National Cancer Institute of USA recommendations of effective dose 50 (ED50) of ≤20μg/mL and ≤4μg/mL, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this review we report 25 botanic families and 39 species of plants used for the treatment of colon cancer in Mexico with evidence in studies in vitro and in vivo.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Medicinal plants are still a great source of novel chemical structures with antineoplastic potential as it is proven in this work. The selection criteria and activity was narrowed for methodological purposes, nevertheless, drug discovery of natural origin continues to be a highly attractive R&D strategy.
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Bioquímica, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición "Salvador Zubirán", D.F. Mexico, Mexico. Electronic address: nadia.jacobo@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Nadia J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Jacobo-Herrera
authors.affiliation: Depto. Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Unidad Cuajimalpa Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, D.F. Mexico, Mexico. Electronic address: fridajacobo@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Frida E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Jacobo-Herrera
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Bioquímica, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición "Salvador Zubirán", D.F. Mexico, Mexico; Medicina Genómica y Toxicología Ambiental, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, D.F. Mexico, Mexico. Electronic address: azentell@biomedicas.unam.mx.
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zentella-Dehesa
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Etnofarmacología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, D.F. Mexico, Mexico. Electronic address: aac@ciencias.unam.mx.
authors.forename: Adolfo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Andrade-Cetto
authors.affiliation: Research Cluster Biodiversity and Medicines/Centre for Pharmacognosy and Phytotherapy, School of Pharmacy, UCL, London, UK. Electronic address: m.heinrich@ucl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heinrich
authors.affiliation: UBIMED, FES-Iztacala, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, Tlalnepantla, Estado de México, Mexico; Laboratorio de Genomica, Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, D.F. Mexico, Mexico. Electronic address: carlos.pplas@campus.iztacala.unam.mx.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pérez-Plasencia
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; D020834:Ethnopharmacology; D006801:Humans; D008800:Mexico; D015394:Molecular Structure; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D010936:Plant Extracts
keywords: Colorectal cancer; Cytotoxicity; In vivo models; Mexican medicinal plants; Traditional Mexican medicine