Botanical Agents for the Treatment of Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer

Table 1

Summary of the effects of botanical agents studied in humans.

Botanical agent	Source	Efficacy	Histopathological; assessment of efficacy	References
Ingenol mebutate	Euphorbia peplus	Demonstrated clinical response (tumor clearance) for BCCs and SCCs.	No	[13, 14]
Hypericin	Hypericum perforatum	Reported clinical response for BCCs and SCCs to hypericin and photodynamic therapy in one study [15], but found the combination to be less effective in another human study [16].	Yes	[15, 16]
Coffee	Coffea plant	Coffee consumption was related to decreased prevalence of NMSC in two studies [17, 18].; No association between coffee consumption and NMSC in one study [19].	No	[17–19]
Tea	Camellia sinensis	Inconsistent results in human studies. Regular tea consumption was associated with reduced risk of SCC and BCC incidence in one study [20], but no reduction in SCC risk in another study [21].; Case reported efficacy for basal cell nevus syndrome with green tea body wrap [22].	No	[20–22]
Escharotic botanical agents	Black salve; (containing bloodroot, galangal, sheep sorrel, and red clover); Bloodroot; (Sanguinaria canadensis)	Cases reported no improvement of BCC and extensive skin necrosis with black salve application [23, 24].; Case reported metastasis of BCC with bloodroot [25].	No	[23–25]
Paclitaxel	Taxus brevifolia	In vitro study demonstrated topical paclitaxel increased antiproliferative activity in a squamous cell carcinoma model [26].; Demonstrated clinical response to recurrent BCC cases [27].	No	[26, 27]
Beta-carotene	Various plants with rich hues	No efficacy for NMSCs.	No	[28, 29]