Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 14, 2016; 22(30): 6890-6905
Published online Aug 14, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i30.6890
Herbal medicines and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
Hong Yao, Yu-Jie Qiao, Ya-Li Zhao, Xu-Feng Tao, Li-Na Xu, Lian-Hong Yin, Yan Qi, Jin-Yong Peng
Hong Yao, Yu-Jie Qiao, Ya-Li Zhao, Xu-Feng Tao, Li-Na Xu, Lian-Hong Yin, Yan Qi, Jin-Yong Peng, College of Pharmacy, Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116044, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: Yao H, Qiao YJ, Zhao YL, Tao XF, Xu LN, Yin LH, Qi Y and Peng JY wrote the manuscript.
Supported by Doctorate in Higher Education Institutions of Ministry of Education, No. 20122105110004.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Jin-Yong Peng, College of Pharmacy, Dalian Medical University, No. 9 Western Lvshunnan Road, Dalian 116044, Liaoning Province, China. jinyongpeng2005@163.com
Telephone: +86-411-86110411 Fax: +86-411-86110411
Received: March 26, 2016
Peer-review started: March 26, 2016
First decision: May 12, 2016
Revised: May 22, 2016
Accepted: June 15, 2016
Article in press: June 15, 2016
Published online: August 14, 2016
Processing time: 131 Days and 7.4 Hours
Abstract

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is characterized by excessive fat accumulation in the liver of patients who consume little or no alcohol, becomes increasingly common with rapid economic development. Long-term excess fat accumulation leads to NAFLD and represents a global health problem with no effective therapeutic approach. NAFLD is considered to be a series of complex, multifaceted pathological processes involving oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis, and metabolism. Over the past decades, herbal medicines have garnered growing attention as potential therapeutic agents to prevent and treat NAFLD, due to their high efficacy and low risk of side effects. In this review, we evaluate the use of herbal medicines (including traditional Chinese herbal formulas, crude extracts from medicinal plants, and pure natural products) to treat NAFLD. These herbal medicines are natural resources that can inform innovative drug research and the development of treatments for NAFLD in the future.

Keywords: Herbal medicines; Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; Natural product; Traditional Chinese medicines; Review

Core tip: Herbal medicines have gained popularity as potential therapeutic agents for the prevention and treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), due to their high efficacy and low side effects. This review introduces traditional Chinese herbal formulas, crude extracts from medicinal plants, and pure natural products as new treatments for NAFLD.