Phytoneering: a new way of therapy for rhinosinusitis

Acta Otorhinolaryngol Ital. 2015 Feb;35(1):1-8. Passali D1, Cambi J1, Passali FM2, Bellussi LM1. Author information 1 ENT Department, University of Siena, Siena, Italy; 2 ENT Clinic, University Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy. Abstractin English, Italian A growing amount of scientific evidence suggests that herbal medicine may be helpful as an adjuvant treatment in rhinosinusitis. Herein, we systematically review and determine the role, efficacy and safety of phytotherapy in the treatment of acute and chronic rhinosinusitis and establish the qualities of herbal drugs as demonstrated by in vitro and in vivo experiments. Eligible studies published in English or German from January 1990 until June 2014 were identified via electronic database searches. Keywords were: sinusitis, phytotherapy, phytomedicine and herbal drugs. Additional studies were obtained through the references of selected articles. Twenty-two articles met inclusion criteria. Overall, the publications indicated that herbal medicines can have mucolytic, antiviral, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and secretolytic effects in experimental animals. Phytotherapy has also been found to be efficacious in reducing the symptoms of acute and chronic rhinosinusitis in children and the adult population in vivo, demonstrating a high level of tolerability and safety. Herbal products developed using phytoneering techniques have shown improvements in performance compared with previous formulations. The current literature suggests that phytotherapy is an effective and safe form of ancillary treatment for rhinosinusitis. In particular, herbal drugs made with the technique of phytoneering have proven effective in acute rhinosinusitis. KEYWORDS: Phytoneering; Phytotherapy; Rhinosinusitis PMID: 26015644 PMCID: PMC4443571 [Indexed for MEDLINE] Free PMC Article Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Google+