A Review of the Anti‐Fibroid Potential of Medicinal Plants: Mechanisms and Targeted Signaling Pathways
No Thumbnail Available
Date
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Description
Uterine fibroid or leiomyoma is the most common gynaecological disorder affecting women. Treatment
of symptomatic fibroids to date has been surgical, consisting of total abdominal hysterectomy or
myomectomy. To decrease surgery’s impact, patients are progressively looking for uterus‐protecting,
negligibly obtrusive therapies/prevention for asymptomatic/symptomatic uterine fibroids. Medicinal
plants/herbs and their active phytoconstituents have been used for the therapy of fibroids and
associated uterine complications. Therefore, this review highlights mechanisms by which
phytochemicals modulate fibroid growth pathways. To achieve this aim, we performed a systematic
search within the two largest medical‐related scientific databases, PubMed and SCOPUS. We considered
all papers representing original research and reporting specific phytochemicals used in the studies. Of
the 227 papers identified, only twenty‐six of these met the required considerations: 80.77% in vitro,
15.39% in vivo, and 3.84% in silico. The most studied plants and phytoconstituents used in
treatment/prevention to inhibit fibroid growth/proliferation pathways were: Scutellaria barbata D. Don,
Curcuma longa L. (Turmeric), and resveratrol, curcumin, and anthocyanins, respectively. Also, the main
pathways of target for fibroid inhibition were cell‐cycle arrest, apoptosis through an increase in ROS
above cell viability thresh‐hold, and inhibition of ECM proteins via reduction of growth factors. This
review highlights natural anti‐fibroid phytoextracts and the pharmacological mechanism by which they
modulate fibroid pathways, thus providing key insights to developing new and innovative therapeutic
options for the management of symptoms in women with uterine fibroids.
Keywords
QH Natural history