C. La razón para tan grande castigo
III. LA CAÍDA
This study was intended to contribute to the knowledge base of the anticancer therapeutic potential of Asparagus laricinus, Senecio asperulus and Gunnera perpensa. It should be noted that plant material used in this study were chosen based on the ethnobotanical claims made by cancer-treating traditional healers in Lesotho as well as supported by recorded ethnobotanical studies. Asparagus laricinus was reported to be used for prostate cancer patients in Limpopo province in South Africa, Senecio asperulus was reported to be used for cancer treatment in Lesotho and Gunnera perpensa was reported to be used for cancer treatment in Lesotho and in the Eastern Cape province in South Africa. Moreover, a mixture of Senecio asperulus and Gunnera perpensa aqueous extracts have been avowed by a traditional herbalist in Lesotho as an effective concoction for the treatment of breast and prostate cancer.
Since other compounds are extracted better with different solvents because of the
differences in polarity, extraction using a variety of solvents was performed to demonstrate a vast difference in their pharmacological activities as far as the experimental results are concerned. However, to account for possible geographical and chemotypic variations, plant material should be studied from several populations in comparison with each other; for example, effects of Asparagus laricinus Burch from Lesotho and South Africa, in the future. Based on the results observed from this study, the recommendations below were made:
i. The activity-guided fractionation, isolation, and identification of identified compounds are imperative, as these may lead to the development of novel treatments in the global struggle against cancer and cancer-related ailments.
ii. No single testing method can provide a comprehensive profile of the antioxidant and anti-inflammation capacity of a plant species, because of the complexity of oxidation-anti-oxidation and inflammation-induction processes. Therefore, different methods are to be used to determine the antioxidant potential and the regulation of other inflammation-related enzymes such as COX-2.
iii. It is recommended that a thorough geographical variation study be performed on each species to explain the chemical diversity between individuals within a population and between populations.
iv. Isolation and structural elucidation of unknown compounds should be studied further so that they can be named.
v. The study on the isolation and identification of the detected unknown compounds can be conducted, but now with the pure and targeted compounds using the guidance of compounds identified under phytochemical screening analysis.
vi. Isolated compounds to be tested on breast (MCF-7) cells again to determine if the activity of tested extracts with anticancer activities was due to a specific compound or several compounds working in synergy.
vii. Toxicity of each isolated compound should then be investigated.
viii. In vivo pharmacological investigation (targeting diseases that these plants have been traditionally used for) of active isolated compounds and crude extracts (as the activity might be synergical from all compounds in each plant).
ix. In vivo anticancer activity investigation of Asparagus laricinus, Senecio asperulus and Gunnera perpensa as some compounds behave differently in vivo when compared to in vitro.
x. Investigation of a mixture of Senecio asperulus and Gunnera perpensa as anticancer drugs for prostate and breast cancer as their activity might be due to synergistic effect when compounds from both plants extracts act together simultaneously.
xi. In vivo anticancer activity of the Senecio asperulus and Gunnera perpensa mixture as claimed by the traditional herbalist in Lesotho, using a mixture of both plants be investigated.
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