The ancient Egyptians practiced medicine with highly professional methods. They had advanced knowledge of anatomy and surgery. Also, they treated a lot of diseases including dental, gynecological, gastrointestinal, and urinary disorders. They could diagnose diabetes and cancer. The used therapeutics extended from different plants to include several animal products and minerals. Some of these plants are still used in the present day. Fortunately, they documented their life details by carving on stone, clay, or papyri. Although a lot of these records have been lost or destroyed, the surviving documents represent a huge source of knowledge in different scientific aspects including medicine. This review article is an attempt to understand some information about traditional medicine in ancient Egypt, we will look closely at some basics, sources of information of Egyptian medicine in addition to common treated diseases and therapeutics in this great civilization.

In our continuous study for some African plants as a source for antitrypanosomally and cytotoxic active drugs, nine different plants belonging to the Crassulaceae family have been selected for the present study. Sedum sieboldii leaves extract showed an antitrypanosomal activity against Trypanosoma brucei with an IC₅₀ value of 8.5 µg/mL. In addition, they have cytotoxic activities against (HCT-116), (HEPG-2) and (MCF-7), with IC₅₀ values of 28.18 ± 0.24, 22.05 ± 0.66, and 26.47 ± 0.85 µg/mL, respectively. Furthermore, the extract displayed inhibition against Topoisomerase-1 with an IC₅₀ value of 1.31 µg/mL. It showed the highest phenolics and flavonoids content among the other plants’ extracts. In order to identify the secondary metabolites which may be responsible for such activities, profiling of the polar secondary metabolites of S. sieboldii extract via Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to High-Resolution QTOF-MS operated in negative and positive ionization modes, which revealed the presence of 46 metabolites, including flavonoids, phenolic acids, anthocyanidins, coumarin, and other metabolites.

Macrozamia communis (Australian cycad) is the most abundant cycad in Australia, yet its associated fungi lack chemical investigation. As a continuation of our ongoing studies on M. communis-associated fungi, an in-depth chemical exploration of the fermented fungal biomass of Penicillium sp. MNP-GP-4 afforded the identification of two previously undescribed curvularin derivatives, curvulones D (1) and E (2), together with three known metabolites, including curvularin (3) and two cytochalasan derivatives chaetoglobosins E and Fex (4 and 5). Chemical structures of the isolated compounds were elucidated based on comprehensive 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic analyses and HR-(+)ESI-MS and comparison with the reported literature. All the isolated secondary metabolites were evaluated for their cytotoxic activity against a pancreatic duct adenocarcinoma (PDAC) cell line, where compounds 4 and 5 were the most active with IC₅₀ values of 2.9 and 3.7 µM, respectively.