Ocimum sanctum L., sometimes referred to as Tulsi in various Indian languages or Holy Basil in English, is a significant medicinal herb used in Southeast Asian traditional and folk medicine. It has been demonstrated via scientific studies to have immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, hypolipidemic, antipyretic, analgesic, hepatoprotective, and stress-relieving properties. Studies have also demonstrated that Tulsi and some of its phytochemicals—including eugenol, apigenin, myretenal, sitosterol, rosmarinic acid, carnosic acid and luteolin—prevent chemically induced oral, gastric, cervical, skin, liver, and lung cancers. These effects are mediated by increased antioxidant properties, inhibition of angiogenesis and metastasis, induction of apoptosis and altered gene expressions. This chapter summarises findings about the chemopreventive effects of Tulsi on various malignancies and also highlights elements that call for more investigation to confirm the herb's efficacy and value in the treatment and prevention of cancer.
Top1. Introduction
Plants played vital role in human history and still continue to; humans depend on plants in almost every aspect medicinal values are one of them. Even today modern medicine shows 80% similarity with the plant constituents (Anand et al., 2019; Balick & Cox, 2020). Till now more than 12000 plant isolates are found only 10% of from known extracted are used as medicine till now. The use of this medicine extracts from plants information passing from generations in the name of traditional medicine in their respective countries (Doughari, 2012; Pan et al., 2013). In India these plants made synthetic agents are used in Ayurveda, Unani and siddha. Each study is unique in their own way. In Ayurveda plants materials given as constituents depending on the condition of patient in different formulations. We can observe the most complex formulatons in Ayurveda for instance: Chavanprash. Ayurveda treatment mainly focused on the tridoshas imbalance, while in case of Unani the diagnosis methods are categorized in eight different ways for the effective analysis and treatment which includes Speech, pulse, Urine, stool, tongue, touch, appearance and vision, The treatment in Unani by hijcant (cupping), hamam (bath and sauna), fasd (venesection), dalak (massage), amat-e-kai (leeching). The studies like siddha use five elements, three forces and eight methods of examination technique for diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. The treatment is as effective as other techniques but siddha mainly used for the digestion and respiratory related issues (Bijauliya et al., 2017; Ravi & Bharadvaja, 2019).
The advancements in technology made to understand science behind this medication. A numerous amounts of chemical compounds obtained from plants shows effects in treating the disease or illness (Atanasov et al., 2021). The humans facing a various diseases which come from internal & external factors affect the body based on type of disease leads to death, if we left untreated. Cancer is one of such diseases holds to complexity to treat by western medicine but can be controlled and cured by medicinal plants (Yuan et al., 2016). The allopathic medication shows resistance, side effects in medication are making to look on medicinal plants with precise in treating disease and with zero side effects. Many number of researchers focusing on the isolation of potential constituents from medicinal plants making them commercial scale to treat illness (Chandra et al., 2017; Chawla et al., 2013).
Plant’s medicinal value in treating cancer there has been a rise in interest and their phytochemicals to cure cancer in recent years. Despite the potential for therapeutic usage and chemoprevention, it is exceptionally difficult to comprehend how different plant components work. As a result, several targeted compounds that have the potential to be utilised as anti-cancer agents have been the subject of intensive investigation (Choudhari et al., 2020; Shukla & Mehta, 2015). Numerous phytochemicals have anti-cancer properties, including resveratrol, indole-3-carbinol, gingerol, allicin, lycopene, vitamin C, emodin, vanillin, sulphoraphane, myrecitin, ellagic acid, and Eugenol (Ng et al., 2018; Yahfoufi et al., 2018).