Background: Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) remain the leading cause of global morbidity and mortality, and despite substantial advances in pharmacotherapy and preventive strategies, many patients continue to have suboptimal risk-factor control, residual risk, or limited access to long-term care. Parallel to this, the use of herbal medicines and traditional remedies has increased worldwide, driven by cultural acceptance, perceived naturalness and the prospect of multi-target cardioprotective effects.
Objective: This narrative review aimed to synthesise contemporary evidence on the therapeutic potential of herbal medicines in CVDs, with a focus on mechanistic pathways, effects on major cardiovascular risk factors, and key safety and interaction considerations.
Methods: A structured narrative search of PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar was conducted for English-language publications from 1990 to 2024. Eligible sources included epidemiological data, narrative and systematic reviews, preclinical studies, and clinical trials evaluating herbal preparations, single botanicals or defined phytochemicals with cardiovascular relevance. Data were extracted on herb identity and preparation, mechanistic pathways, study design, principal outcomes and reported adverse events, and were synthesised descriptively.
Results: The evidence base is dominated by preclinical studies and small, often short-term human trials of traditional Chinese medicine formulas, Ayurvedic preparations and culinary spices such as garlic, ginger and turmeric. Across these interventions, modest but generally favourable effects were observed on blood pressure, lipid profile, glycaemic indices, oxidative stress, endothelial function and inflammatory markers. Mechanistic studies support multi-target actions involving antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, endothelial, lipid, glucose and antithrombotic pathways. However, heterogeneity in formulations, limited standardisation, modest effect sizes and a paucity of trials assessing hard cardiovascular endpoints constrain the strength and generalisability of conclusions. Safety profiles were acceptable in the short term, but clinically relevant herb-drug interaction risks, particularly with antithrombotic and cardiovascular medications, were identified.
Conclusion: Selected, standardised herbal medicines show biologically plausible and clinically promising adjunctive benefits in CVD prevention and management, but current data do not justify their use as stand-alone therapies. Rigorous, adequately powered trials with robust outcome measures, together with stronger quality control and pharmacovigilance, are needed to enable safe, evidence-based integration of herbal medicine into cardiovascular care.
International Journal of Herbal Medicine
Research Journals