TY - JOUR
T1 - Current Status of Herbal Medicines in Chronic Liver Disease Therapy
T2 - The Biological Effects, Molecular Targets and Future Prospects
AU - Hong, Ming
AU - Li, Sha
AU - Tan, Hor Yue
AU - Wang, Ning
AU - Tsao, Sai-Wah
AU - Feng, Yibin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2015/12/2
Y1 - 2015/12/2
N2 - Chronic liver dysfunction or injury is a serious health problem worldwide. Chronic liver disease involves a wide range of liver pathologies that include fatty liver, hepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The efficiency of current synthetic agents in treating chronic liver disease is not satisfactory and they have undesirable side effects. Thereby, numerous medicinal herbs and phytochemicals have been investigated as complementary and alternative treatments for chronic liver diseases. Since some herbal products have already been used for the management of liver diseases in some countries or regions, a systematic review on these herbal medicines for chronic liver disease is urgently needed. Herein, we conducted a review describing the potential role, pharmacological studies and molecular mechanisms of several commonly used medicinal herbs and phytochemicals for chronic liver diseases treatment. Their potential toxicity and side effects were also discussed. Several herbal formulae and their biological effects in chronic liver disease treatment as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms are also summarized in this paper. This review article is a comprehensive and systematic analysis of our current knowledge of the conventional medicinal herbs and phytochemicals in treating chronic liver diseases and on the potential pitfalls which need to be addressed in future study.
AB - Chronic liver dysfunction or injury is a serious health problem worldwide. Chronic liver disease involves a wide range of liver pathologies that include fatty liver, hepatitis, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The efficiency of current synthetic agents in treating chronic liver disease is not satisfactory and they have undesirable side effects. Thereby, numerous medicinal herbs and phytochemicals have been investigated as complementary and alternative treatments for chronic liver diseases. Since some herbal products have already been used for the management of liver diseases in some countries or regions, a systematic review on these herbal medicines for chronic liver disease is urgently needed. Herein, we conducted a review describing the potential role, pharmacological studies and molecular mechanisms of several commonly used medicinal herbs and phytochemicals for chronic liver diseases treatment. Their potential toxicity and side effects were also discussed. Several herbal formulae and their biological effects in chronic liver disease treatment as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms are also summarized in this paper. This review article is a comprehensive and systematic analysis of our current knowledge of the conventional medicinal herbs and phytochemicals in treating chronic liver diseases and on the potential pitfalls which need to be addressed in future study.
KW - chronic liver disease
KW - herbal medicines
KW - molecular targets
KW - Chinese medicine herbal formulae
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84949423234&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijms161226126
DO - 10.3390/ijms161226126
M3 - Review article
C2 - 26633388
AN - SCOPUS:84949423234
SN - 1661-6596
VL - 16
SP - 28705
EP - 28745
JO - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
JF - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
IS - 12
ER -