An-Najah Staff

Background: Little is known about the use of herbal medicines in cancer care in the Palestinian Authority. This review aimed to identify the plants used by people living with cancer in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and their attitudes towards herbal remedies.
Methodology: All ethnobotanic studies carried out in the West Bank and Gaza and identified as relevant to the purpose of the review were assessed [1–8]. These studies involved 1061 informants (healers, attareen, and people known in their communities to be knowledgeable in traditional medicine) and were mainly aimed at studying the current status of the Palestinian herbal medicine in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and deter- mining medicinal plants still in use and their primary health care importance at the household level, economic value, con- servation status, and their healing potentials. Only one of these studies [6], which was carried out with MECC support, concentrated partly on plants used in prostate cancer care in the West Bank.
Results and discussion: Many plant species (349 species of which 345 were in the West Bank, and 120 in Gaza Strip) were reported to be still in use in Traditional Arabic Palestinian Herbal Medicine, TAPHM in the PA for treating various human ailments including cancer [1–8]. Eighty-one of these plants were reported to be used for cancer care (West Bank 76, and Gaza 18). Table 1 presents the top 25 plants used for cancer care in the PA, listed in order of their quotation frequency. The top five species used for the treatment of cancer are: Arum palaestinum, Urtica pilulifera, Allium sativum, Olea europaea, Nigella ciliaris, and Allium cepa. However, information on self-medication with herbal remedies among PApopulations living with cancer is lacking. Exploring cancer patients’ information needs and preferences will assist in the development of a suitable resource for both the patients and the professionals advising them.