Abstract
Atherosclerosis is a chronic multifactorial disease characterized by mainly changes of blood lipids profile and inflammation in vessel wall. The cardiovascular disease based on atherosclerosis is currently the leading cause of mortality in developed countries. Therefore, timely prevention and therapy of atherosclerosis are able to reduce the risk of the development of its clinical manifestations. Anti-atherosclerotic activity of medicinal plants mainly appears in their multiple effects such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-atherogenic, hypotensive, lipid-lowering, anti-thrombotic. Moreover, most of medicinal plants are characterized by their pleiotropic anti-atherosclerotic action. In addition, the medicinal plants-derived pharmacological substances and/or compounds are characterized by relative safety and fewer side effects that allows considering them as one of potential anti-atherosclerotic effective agents. The direct anti-atherosclerotic effect of some medicinal plants was confirmed in clinical trials of carotid Intima-media thickness (IMT) progression during long-term medication with medicinal plants. This review attempted to determine the current status of the databases PubMed and Scopus (until November, 2019) to investigate the medicinal plants possessing anti-atherosclerotic activity in experimental and clinical studies.
Highlights
Atherosclerosis is a chronic multifactorial disease characterized by dyslipidemia and inflammation
Among a number of medicinal plants that have been studied in terms of anti-atherosclerotic mechanisms of action, garlic seems to be one of the most studied, its effectiveness is investigated in clinical trials evaluating its direct antiatherosclerotic action on carotid atherosclerosis
Garlic preparations have the most interesting and obvious cardio-protective properties since garlic is able to ameliorate the blood lipids profile by inhibiting cholesterol biosynthesis, reducing of low-density lipoproteins (LDL), modulate arterial hypertension, and inhibit platelet aggregation (Sobenin et al, 2008a; Sobenin et al, 2008b; Sobenin et al, 2009; Jung et al, 2014; Mahdavi-Roshan et al, 2016; Myasoedova et al, 2016; Villa et al, 2017; Choudhary et al, 2018; Sathyapalan et al, 2018; Panahi et al, 2018; Xu et al, 2018; Sedaghat et al, 2019; Adibian et al, 2019; Adab et al, 2019)
Summary
Atherosclerosis is a chronic multifactorial disease characterized by dyslipidemia and inflammation. Studies of the traditional Chinese formula Danshen Salvia miltiorrhiza + Gegen Radix puerariae in showed a significant decrease in plasma total cholesterol (TC) and LDL in postmenopausal women with hypercholesterolemia after 12 months of daily intake of 1 g of the drug in a randomized placebo-controlled trial (Koon et al, 2013).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
