Review
Herbal drugs against cardiovascular disease: traditional medicine and modern development
Highlights
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- Herbs have attracted attention as complementary/alternative treatments against CVDs.
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- Modern technology is crucial for revealing mechanisms of action of herbs against CVDs.
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- Herb–drug interactions exhibit beneficial effects and/or side-effects.
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- Modern evaluation offers new directions of herb drugs for CVDs in practice and industry.
Herbal
products have been used as conventional medicines for thousands of
years, particularly in Eastern countries. Thousands of clinical and
experimental investigations have focused on the effects and
mechanisms-of-action of herbal medicine in the treatment of
cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Considering the history of clinical
practice and the great potentials of herb medicine and/or its
ingredients, a review on this topic would be helpful. This article
discusses possible effects of herbal remedies in the prevention and
treatment of CVDs. Crucially, we also summarize some underlying
pharmacological mechanisms for herb products in cardiovascular
regulations, which might provide interesting information for further
understanding the effects of herbal medicines, and boost the prospect of
new herbal products against CVDs.
Copyright © 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Xu
received his PhD at the University of Cambridge, UK, with subsequent
postdoctoral training at the University of Iowa, USA. After that, he was
an assistant professor in the Deptartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology
at the School of Medicine, UCLA, and then served as an associate
professor and professor at the Center for Perinatal Biology, Loma Linda
University, USA. He is currently Professor and Director for the
Institute for Fetology at First Hospital of Soochow University, China.
His current major research interests focus on adult health and diseases
with developmental origins. The institute where he works is leading in
the study of cardiovascular diseases with fetal origins in China.
