Systematic review on the vasodilation activity of medicinal plants in the family Asteraceae

Abstract

The current study aims to review the studies on the vasodilation activity of medicinal plants in the family
Asteraceae. We carried out the review based on the 06- PRISMA guideline (14) and registered in the
CAMARADES-NC3Rs Preclinical Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Facility (SyRF) database.
Various English databases, such as Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, and Google Scholar were
used to find publications about the vasodilation effects of medicinal herbs with no date limitation. Among
2420 papers, 8 papers including up to 2021, met the inclusion criteria for discussion in this systematic
review. The obtained results showed that the most common parts used in the studies were aerial parts
(40%) followed by leaves (30%) and fruit (10%). The findings of the present review showed that
methanolic extract (20%), essential oil (20%), and aqueous extract (20%) were considered as the desired
approaches of herbal extraction. The findings of the present review showed that several investigations have
been carried out on antihypertensive and vasodilation activity of extracts and essential oils of Asteraceae
family alone or in combination with present synthetic drugs. We found that the plant-based vasodilation
drugs are considered as an alternative and complementary source for treating hypertension as had lower
important toxicity. However, more studies are required to clear this conclusion, particularly in clinical
systems.