Anticancer mechanisms of indigenous food plants in Nigeria

 News Release 28-Apr-2025
Xia & He Publishing Inc.

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(a) Spondias mombin; (b) Xanthosoma sagittifolium; (c) Elaeis guineensis; (d) Irvingia gabonensis; (e) Blighia sapida; (f) Launaea taraxacifolia; (g) Tetracarpidium conophorum; (h) Chrysophyllum albidum; (i) Solanum macrocarpon; (j) Dioscorea dumetorum; (k) Talinum triangulare; (l) Psidium guajava; (m) Allium cepa L. Photo credit: google photo.

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Credit: Adeoye Bayo Olufunso

Cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide, with significant impacts in Nigeria, where the incidence and mortality rates continue to rise. The prevalence of cancers such as breast, cervical, prostate, and liver cancer is high in the region. Although conventional cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiotherapy have advanced, there remains an urgent need for safer and more effective alternatives. Indigenous food plants in Nigeria have shown promise due to their rich bioactive compounds, which possess anticancer properties. This review focuses on the mechanisms through which these plants exert their anticancer effects and explores their potential to complement conventional cancer therapies.

Indigenous Nigerian Food Plants with Anticancer Properties

Several indigenous plants from Nigeria demonstrate potential anticancer properties, making them valuable candidates for natural cancer therapies. The plants discussed in this review include Spondias mombin, Xanthosoma sagittifolium, Elaeis guineensis, Irvingia gabonensis, Allium cepa, Blighia sapida, Dioscorea dumetorum, Psidium guajava, and Talinum triangulare. These plants contain diverse bioactive compounds, including flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, and phenolic acids, which contribute to their anticancer effects.

Spondias mombin: This plant is rich in carotenoids and flavonoids such as quercetin, which exhibit anticancer activities by inducing apoptosis, inhibiting cell proliferation, and reducing oxidative stress. Quercetin also targets cancer-related signaling pathways, including PI3K/Akt and MAPK, and has anti-inflammatory properties.

Xanthosoma sagittifolium: Known for its anticancer effects against leukemia cells, this plant induces apoptosis, arrests the cell cycle, and inhibits angiogenesis. Its bioactive compounds, including flavonoids and tannins, modulate key cellular pathways, enhancing its potential as a cancer therapeutic.

Elaeis guineensis (Oil Palm): Extracts from oil palm contain tocotrienols, which exhibit potent antioxidant and anticancer properties by reducing oxidative stress and inducing apoptosis in cancer cells. Tocotrienols have shown efficacy in breast cancer models by reducing cell viability and promoting cell cycle arrest.

Irvingia gabonensis (African Mango): This plant contains compounds such as flavonoids and tannins, which exhibit antioxidant activity, induce apoptosis, and regulate metabolic pathways involved in cancer progression. Gallotannins found in the seeds also have strong anticancer effects by modulating cellular pathways and enhancing immune responses.

Allium cepa (Onion): Onions are rich in organosulfur compounds, flavonoids, and phenolic acids, which reduce oxidative stress, inhibit cell proliferation, and induce apoptosis. Onions also regulate detoxification enzymes, enhance the immune system, and may help overcome multidrug resistance in cancer cells.

Blighia sapida (Ackee): Ackee contains bioactive compounds like flavonoids and phenolic acids, which inhibit cancer progression through various mechanisms, including the inhibition of the ERK5 signaling pathway in breast cancer and antioxidative activities that prevent DNA damage.

Dioscorea dumetorum (Yam): Diosgenin, a compound in yams, exhibits significant anticancer properties, inhibiting cell proliferation, inducing apoptosis, and modulating signaling pathways like NF-κB and MAPK. Yams also have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects that support cancer treatment.

Psidium guajava (Guava): Guava leaves contain tannins, flavonoids, and phenolic acids that induce apoptosis, inhibit cancer cell growth, and prevent DNA damage. Guava also reduces oxidative stress and inflammation, which are key factors in cancer progression.

Talinum triangulare (Waterleaf): This plant is rich in bioactive compounds like quercetin, which induce apoptosis in cancer cells and exhibit antioxidant properties. Its potential anticancer mechanisms include enhancing immune responses and reducing oxidative stress.

Mechanisms of Action

The anticancer effects of these plants are mediated through several mechanisms. These include:

Induction of Apoptosis: Many of the plants discussed in this review promote programmed cell death in cancer cells. This occurs through the activation of pro-apoptotic proteins and the suppression of anti-apoptotic proteins.

Cell Cycle Arrest: Several plant extracts induce cell cycle arrest at various checkpoints, such as the G1/S and G2/M phases, by inhibiting cyclin-dependent kinases. This halts tumor cell proliferation and contributes to tumor regression.

Inhibition of Angiogenesis: By targeting angiogenic factors such as VEGF, these plants prevent the formation of new blood vessels necessary for tumor growth and metastasis.

Modulation of Inflammatory and Oxidative Stress Pathways: The bioactive compounds in these plants reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, which are crucial factors in cancer initiation and progression.

Future Directions

While the potential of these indigenous food plants in cancer therapy is promising, further research is required to understand their full pharmacological profiles. The current gaps in knowledge include variability in the phytochemical composition of these plants, depending on factors such as soil quality and environmental conditions. There is also a need for more clinical trials to assess the safety and efficacy of these plants in human cancer treatment.

Future studies should focus on standardizing the preparation and dosage of plant extracts, conducting rigorous clinical trials, and integrating traditional knowledge with modern scientific methods. Additionally, public awareness campaigns could educate healthcare professionals and patients about the potential benefits of these plants in complementary cancer therapies.

Conclusion

Indigenous food plants from Nigeria offer a wealth of bioactive compounds with significant anticancer properties. By utilizing their rich phytochemical diversity, these plants present opportunities for complementary cancer therapies that could improve treatment outcomes and reduce side effects. Integrating these plants into cancer treatment regimens, alongside conventional therapies, could provide more accessible and affordable cancer care, especially in regions with limited medical resources.

 

Full text:

https://www.xiahepublishing.com/2835-6357/FIM-2024-00042

 

The study was recently published in the Future Integrative Medicine.

Future Integrative Medicine (FIM) publishes both basic and clinical research, including but not limited to randomized controlled trials, intervention studies, cohort studies, observational studies, qualitative and mixed method studies, animal studies, and systematic reviews.

 

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Journal

Future Integrative Medicine

DOI

10.14218/FIM.2024.00042 

Article Title

Anticancer Mechanisms of Indigenous Food Plants in Nigeria

 

Finding 'win-win-wins' for climate, economics and justice

University of Michigan

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Many countries with low carbon dioxide emissions face comparatively high risks of climate change impacts, including droughts, wildfires and heatwaves. A new research paper led by the University of Michigan examines how climate change mitigation strategies can reduce those risks while promoting justice, economics and overall well-being.

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Credit: P.B. Reich et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2025 (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2411231122)

As evidence continues to pour in showing that climate change's impacts disproportionately affect disadvantaged communities around the globe, so, too, do stories showing that these communities can also pay outsized costs to implement climate solutions.

Yet, in examining the available body of data and literature detailing how different countries have rolled out climate change mitigation strategies, research led by the University of Michigan has found reasons for optimism.

"It's not all doom and gloom," said report author Peter Reich, professor at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability, or SEAS, and director of the Institute for Global Change Biology. 

"I think there's an expectation that poor countries have to pollute to bring a middle-class life to most of its people, like we did. But we've seen some low-middle-income countries start to decarbonize through investing in renewables and increasing energy efficiency. And they are lowering their emissions while reducing income inequality and increasing the well-being of their people."

At the same time, Reich said, it's all too easy to find cases where vulnerable peoples experience negative consequences from investments in renewables. Take, for example, Indigenous people who have been forced off of their land to build a hydroelectric dam. In fact, that was part of the inspiration for the new study.

There are hundreds of research articles and as many pages of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that highlight such inequities. These are found both in the effects of climate change and also in the mitigation strategies used to slow and stop climate change. Reich and his collaborators wanted to extract broader insights by starting to bring those individual reports together under a systematic and comprehensive analytical framework.

In its new report, the team examined connections between climate impacts, mitigation strategies and social justice considerations, like wealth distribution and overall public health and well-being.

And, while the effort did show certain countries performing better and worse by certain metrics, the team's goal wasn't to rank, praise or critique. It was to find an answer to a much more fundamental question: Is there evidence that it's possible to build up sustainable policies and infrastructure in a just way?

"Because inequity can result from mitigation actions themselves, sometimes that can have a perverse effect and actually slow down the broader adoption of mitigation strategies," said Reich, who is also a professor at the University of Minnesota. 

This slowing has contributed to a dogmatic belief that asking poorer countries to move to renewables is asking their people to suffer, he added.

"But there's no consistent evidence suggesting that moving to renewable energy has overall negative impacts or consequences for poorer countries or their peoples," Reich said. "If countries are able to invest in renewables, we're seeing cases where it's actually beneficial for their people, it's reducing pollution and it's slowing climate change. It's a win-win-win."

As an example, the team found thirteen low-to-medium-income countries that were increasing their renewable deployment along with their average income and gross domestic product per capita over the last 30 years. Those countries also saw their emissions and Gini indices, a measure of inequality, drop.

"We're not saying it's all causally related," Reich said. "But there's no evidence that renewables are getting in the way of equity or economic advancement."

The team's work was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Another important point that Reich stressed is that this does not let wealthy countries with high emissions, such as the U.S., off the hook. They still need to work harder to decarbonize in order to reach international climate goals, he said, but he believes the economic data will compel them to act.

"Every decade that we wait to take action, we see the cost of climate change damages go up astronomically and the cost of renewables go down," Reich said. "That's not just me, some ecologist, making up these numbers. They come from major corporations and insurers whose jobs are to understand the risks."

Although he admits time could prove him wrong for feeling this way, Reich does walk away from the team's study with optimism.

"We're not wide-eyed idealists. The international community hasn't solved this yet, and is not going to solve it tomorrow," he said. "But we can slow and eventually stop climate change, and do so while actually saving money and enhancing environmental justice."

The research team also included Kathryn Grace of the University of Minnesota, Harini Nagendra of Azim Premji University in India and Arun Agrawal of the University of Notre Dame. Agrawal is also an emeritus professor with SEAS.

By analyzing available data and literature, research led by the University of Michigan has identified real-world scenarios where low-middle-income countries are lowering emissions while reducing inequality and improving well-being.

Credit

Adapted with permission from P.B. Reich et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2025 (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2411231122)

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Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2411231122 

Article Title

Mitigation justice

Article Publication Date

28-Apr-2025

 

Adapting to the next level: new study offers survival guide for game developers amidst industry shake-ups

Research highlights strategies for thriving amidst console launches and technological advances

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

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New INFORMS Strategy Science Study Key Takeaways:

• Diversified Expertise Pays Off: Developers with experience across multiple platforms are better positioned to adapt to new consoles, allowing for quicker transitions and broader audience reach.
• Fungible Skills as a Steppingstone: Companies with a fungible, adaptable programming skills shift to new console technologies more readily.
• Strategic Game Releases: High-profile titles, such as those based on blockbuster movies or sports franchises, benefit from multiplatform launches to maximize profitability, while niche games can maintain success with platform exclusivity.
• Embracing Cross-Platform Development: The industry trend is moving toward simultaneous multiplatform releases, reducing reliance on single-console exclusivity.

 

BALTIMORE, MD, April 24, 2025 – As the gaming world buzzes with the recent unveiling of the Nintendo Switch 2 and anticipated releases of the PlayStation 5 Pro and Xbox Series X refresh, a timely study sheds light on how game developers can navigate these industry upheavals. New research in the INFORMS journal Strategy Science delves into how developers adapt to “innovation shocks” – unexpected technological advancements that redefine the gaming landscape.

The study, “Strategic Responses to Innovation Shocks: Evidence from the Video Game Industry,” examines how game developers responded to the launch of Sony’s PlayStation 2 in 2000, a moment that sent shockwaves through the industry and forced companies to rethink their approach to game development. The findings reveal that developers with experience working across multiple platforms were best positioned to pivot quickly, using their broad skill sets to adjust to new hardware demands.

“The companies that fared the best weren’t necessarily the ones that rushed to adopt new technology first,” said lead author Nicholas Argyres of Washington University in St. Louis. “Instead, they were the ones that had built up the right mix of flexibility and expertise over time, allowing them to adapt efficiently without overextending themselves.”

Companies that specialized in PC game development had an additional advantage. Because their programming expertise was more adaptable across platforms, they were able to transition more smoothly into the evolving console space. Meanwhile, not all developers had the same incentives to expand across platforms. Games tied to major movie franchises, sports leagues or other licensed properties were most likely to be released on multiple consoles from the start. With high licensing costs and a short window to capitalize on public interest, these titles benefited from reaching the widest possible audience right away.

“Studios working with high-profile licenses, like major Hollywood films or sports leagues, couldn’t afford to wait,” said co-author Lyda Bigelow of the University of Utah. “They had to release on multiple platforms immediately to maximize revenue before consumer interest faded. That’s a strategy we still see in the industry today.”

In contrast, smaller studios specializing in niche, cult-favorite games often stayed loyal to a single console for longer, prioritizing the depth of their fanbase over immediate mass-market reach.

The research also highlights how the PlayStation 2 era marked a turning point in gaming, ushering in the rise of cross-platform releases. Before this innovation shock, many games were exclusive to a single console, forcing developers to take a gamble on which platform would dominate. But as new hardware and development tools emerged, studios increasingly opted to launch their games across multiple platforms at the same time, reducing their risks and maximizing profits.

“The shift toward simultaneous multiplatform releases was a game-changer,” said co-author Hakan Ozalp, University of Amsterdam. “It wasn’t just about making more money – it was about reducing risk. Developers who stuck to a single console ran the risk of backing the wrong horse in a rapidly changing market.”

“Innovation shocks like new console releases present both challenges and opportunities,” added Argyres. “Our study highlights that strategic adaptability, rather than immediate adoption of new technology, is crucial for developers aiming to succeed in a rapidly evolving market.”

As the gaming industry stands on the cusp of another transformation with the next wave of console releases, this research offers valuable lessons for developers, publishers and industry leaders looking to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive landscape.

 

Link to full study.

 

About INFORMS and Strategy Science
INFORMS is the world’s largest association for professionals and students in operations research, AI, analytics, data science and related disciplines, serving as a global authority in advancing cutting-edge practices and fostering an interdisciplinary community of innovation.  Strategy Science, a leading INFORMS journal, publishes outstanding research directed to the challenges of strategic management in both business and nonbusiness organizations. Learn more at www.informs.org or @informs.

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Journal

Strategy Science

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Strategic Responses to Innovation Shocks: Evidence from the Video Game Industry

 

Modeling reemergence of vaccine-eliminated infectious diseases under declining vaccination in the US

JAMA Network

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About The Study: 

Based on estimates from this modeling study, declining childhood vaccination rates will increase the frequency and size of outbreaks of previously eliminated vaccine-preventable infections, eventually leading to their return to endemic levels. The timing and critical threshold for returning to endemicity will differ substantially by disease, with measles likely to be the first to return to endemic levels and may occur even under current vaccination levels without improved vaccine coverage and public health response. These findings support the need to continue routine childhood vaccination at high coverage to prevent resurgence of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases in the U.S.

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Nathan C. Lo, MD, PhD, email nathan.lo@stanford.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jama.2025.6495)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article 

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2025.6495?guestAccessKey=4760b098-4441-478b-8eb5-7009d702a227&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=042425

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Journal

JAMA

 

UCLA study: How to break through climate apathy

Researchers looked into ways to communicate the true impact of climate change and found a solution

University of California - Los Angeles

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Key takeaways 

• The climate crisis contributes to increasing weather-driven disasters, but people adjust “disturbingly fast” to gradual temperature increases, leading to climate apathy. 
• A new UCLA study finds that presenting the same continuous climate data, such as incremental changes in temperature, in binary form — such as whether a lake did or did not freeze in the winter — significantly increases people’s ability to see the impact of climate change.
• Making an emotional connection to the loss of local traditions may also help overcome climate apathy.

Slowing human-caused climate change requires decisive action, but the slow upward creep of global temperatures contributes to apathy among people who don’t experience regular climate-driven disasters, psychologists say. In a new study from UCLA and Princeton, researchers looked into ways to communicate the true impact of climate change and found a solution.

Showing people continuous data, such as temperature increases in a town, left people with a vague impression of gradual change, but showing binary data for the same town, specifically whether a lake froze or not each winter, brought home the striking shift, said incoming UCLA communications professor and cognitive psychologist Rachit Dubey.

“People are adjusting to worsening environmental conditions, like multiple fire seasons per year, disturbingly fast,” said Dubey, senior author of the study. “When we used the same temperature data for a location but presented it in a starker way, it broke through people’s climate apathy. Unfortunately, compared to those who looked at a clearer presentation of the same information, those who only looked at gradual data perceived a 12% smaller climate impact and cared less.”

Dubey studies how people reason about climate change, how to communicate about it and how to improve climate communications. He noted how heavily political and personal experiences influence risk perceptions around climate change, and how quickly people redefine “normal.” A Vox article reporting on climate apathy in 2020 inspired Dubey to look deeper into the human tendency to adjust to change, even as science has proven that humans’ greenhouse gas emissions are causing climate change and increasing disasters like wildfires, droughts, floods, hurricanes, and sea-level rise.

“For years, we assumed that if the climate worsened enough, people would act, but instead, we’re seeing the ‘boiling frog’ effect, where humans continuously reset their perception of ‘normal’ every few years,” Dubey said. “People are adjusting to worsening environmental conditions, like multiple fire seasons per year, disturbingly fast. My research examines how people are mentally adapting to the negative changes in our environment.”

In the study, published April 17 in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the researchers first asked study participants about the climate in a fictional city they named “Townsville,” and later asked a second group about five real lakeside cities around the world, including Lake George in New York and Grand Traverse Bay in Michigan. In both versions of the experiment, the scientists showed half of the study participants a graph of temperature increases from 1940-2020, and the other half a graph showing whether temperatures caused the lake to freeze each winter. Whether charting temperatures or lake freezes, each pair of charts drew from the same slowly warming weather information. As temperatures gradually climbed, the lakes stopped freezing as often. For the real towns, study participants hearing about the lake also learned about the decline of activities like ice skating and ice fishing.

When the researchers asked participants to rate from 1 to 10 how much climate change impacted the town, people who learned about a range of temperatures responded lower than people who learned whether the lake froze — on average, 6.6, compared to 7.5, or 12% higher.

Making the emotional connection to local traditions, whether ice skating in the winter or freedom from wildfire smoke in the summer, may also contribute to overcoming apathy, said lead author Grace Liu, a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University.

“Our study drives home the importance of discussing climate change not just in gradual temperature terms, but in concrete, either-or terms, showing how life has changed,” Liu said. “It’s not just warmer winters; it’s also a loss of ice hockey and white Christmases. It’s not just hotter summers; it’s the disappearance of a swimming hole due to drought or soccer practice (being) canceled because it’s dangerously hot.”

The researchers hope the results help anyone designing visual representations of climate change graphics or those seeking to clarify gradual changes, from climate generalists and data visualization professionals to policymakers and journalists.

“People working in these fields have a sense that binary data is more effective, and our study adds theoretical rigor, using careful cognitive experiments,” Dubey said. “Our study also helps explain why the ‘Show Your Stripes’ visualization is so compelling because it takes continuous data and presents it in a more binary format.”

By focusing on the increasing rate of once-rare events, like extreme heat days or thousand-year floods, or the slow loss of seasonal joys like skiing or outdoor ice skating, the researchers hope that the same temperature data that once led to public apathy can instead help communities care more about the climate crisis.

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Journal

Nature Human Behaviour