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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter September 23, 2020

Phytotherapy in endometriosis: an up-to-date review

  • Luigi Della Corte EMAIL logo , Marco Noventa , Michal Ciebiera , Maria Magliarditi , Zaki Sleiman , Erbil Karaman , Ursula Catena ORCID logo , Calogero Salvaggio , Giovanni Falzone and Simone Garzon ORCID logo

Abstract

Endometriosis is a benign gynecological disease which symptoms can provide a severe impact on patient’s quality of life with subsequent impact on psychological well-being. Different therapeutic strategies are available to treat this disease, such as surgery, hormonal therapies, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Nevertheless, the efficacy of conventional medical treatments is limited or intermittent in most of the patients due to the associated side effects. Therefore, a woman with endometriosis often search for additional and alternative options, and phytotherapy might be a promising alternative and complementary strategy. Different medicinal plants, multicomponent herbal preparations, and phytochemicals were investigated for pharmacological proprieties in endometriosis therapy. In most of the cases, the effect on endometriosis was related to phenolic compounds, such as flavonoids and phenolic acids reporting anti-inflammatory, proapoptotic, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory functions. Moreover, some phytochemicals have been related to a strong phytoestrogenic effect modulating the estrogen activity. Although promising, available evidence is based on in vitro and animal models of endometriosis with a limited number of well-performed clinical studies. There are almost none randomized control trials in this area. Therefore, properly constructed clinical trials are mandatory to achieve more conclusive results about the promising role of phytotherapy in the management of endometriosis.

  1. Author contributions: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Research funding: None declared.

  3. Employment or leadership: None declared.

  4. Honorarium: None declared.

  5. Competing interests: None declared.

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Received: 2019-03-26
Accepted: 2019-07-28
Published Online: 2020-09-23

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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