Retrospective epidemiological study on stomach cancer in a region of western Algeria: about 394 cases between 2011 and 2015

The Main Patterns in the Trend Change of Stomach Cancer Incidence amongst Selected African Countries

Aim. The current study aimed to investigate the trend changes of stomach cancer incidence amongst African countries and identify the main patterns. Methods. The annual reports of stomach cancer incidence rate (per 100,000 people) for males and females in 53 African countries from 1990 to 2016 were maintained from the World Health Organization archive. The growth mixture model was used for fitting the models in Mplus 7.4. The estimated linear trend in each pattern was characterized by intercept (the rate at 1990) and slope (the observed biennial trend changes), and finally, each country was grouped into a cluster with the most similar pattern. Results. Three main patterns for males and two main patterns for females were determined. For males, the first cluster, containing Cape Verde, Central African Republic, and Mauritius, showed a sharp fall, while countries in the second pattern including Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Gambia, Libya, Malawi, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, and Tunisia were categorized in a pattern with a slight decrease, and other 43 countries were in the third pattern with a moderate falling trend. For females, 19 countries including Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Congo Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Mali, Mauritius, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe were categorized in the moderate-to-high falling pattern, but the other 34 countries had a gentle downward pattern. Conclusion. Although most of the observed trends of stomach cancer were falling, only a few countries had experienced a favorable decreasing trend (three countries in male incidence and nineteen countries in female incidence). Therefore, taking effective actions to accelerate the observed falling trends seems necessary.

Medicinal Plants Used by Traditional Healers in Algeria: A Multiregional Ethnobotanical Study

Traditional medicine is the cornerstone that boosts scientific research to explore new therapeutic approaches. The study aimed to assess the traditional knowledge and use of medicinal plants to treat various ailments by Algerian traditional healers. Forty traditional healers were face-to-face interviewed in three different Algerian areas (West, Kabylia, and Sahara). The data collected were analyzed using quantitative indices such as fidelity level (FL) and informant consensus factor (F_IC). A total of 167 species belonging to 70 families were recorded. Lamiaceae (13%), Asteraceae (13%), Apiaceae (7%), and Rosaceae and Fabaceae (5% each) were the most cited families. The survey revealed that leaves were the most used parts of the plants (29%). Furthermore, decoction (35%), raw (24%), and infusion (19%) were the common modes for the remedies’ preparation. Here, 15% of the total species were newly reported as medicinal plants. Besides, it was reported for the first time a total of 47 new therapeutic uses for 20 known plant species. Of 17 ailments categories, cancer was presented by 44 species, showing the highest F_IC of 0.46. Marrubium vulgare L., Artemisia herba-alba Asso., Zingiber officinale Roscoe., and Juniperus phoenicea L. recorded the maximum fidelity value of 100%. Therefore, our study reveals strong ethnomedicinal knowledge shared by local populations living in the three regions studied. The medicinal species with a high FL could be promising candidates for identifying new bioactive molecules.