THE TRADITIONAL USE OF THE LATEX FROM EUPHORBIA TIRUCALLI LINNAEUS (EUPHORBIACEAE) IN THE TREATMENT OF CANCER IN SOUTH BRAZIL

Information about the empirical use of the plant Euphorbia tirucalli Linn. in cancer treatment was gathered in Porto Alegre and Montenegro cities, in South Brazil, and presented in this paper. Such information was submitted to a comparison with scientific data from the literature, as chemical constitution, pharmacological properties and toxicity. The plant Aveloz, as it is popularly known, is native from Africa and Asia, where its latex is used by the folk medicine, among other indications, in rheumatism treatment, neuralgia, asthma and gastric disorders. The empirical utilization of Euphorbia tirucalli Linn. for cancer treatment has diffused around the Porto Alegre city and also in Montenegro, a city from Rio Grande do Sul State, mainly associated, directly or indirectly, with religious leaders or entities.

The prevalent constituents of this plant latex are diterpenes from the tigliane (phorbol esters) and from the ingenane types (ingenol esters). The cancer management with Euphorbia tirucalli Linn. presents no scientifical basis, at least up to the moment, since the phorbol esters have already presented tumor-promoting ability. Good examples of the last statement are the prototypes TPA (12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol-13-acetate) and de 4-deoxyphorbol that induce the Burkitt's lymphoma and the nasopharyngeo carcinoma development, which are endemical in places where the plant Euphorbia tirucalli is widely distributed in the environment.