Scientometric assessment of scientific documents published in 2020 on herbal medicines used for COVID-19.

Objective: Many studies have suggested herbal medicines as alternatives or adjuvants to modern drugs for COVID-19. Their scientometric analyses can provide a scientific overview of this topic. Materials and methods: Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus were searched for articles on the use of herbal medicines in COVID-19 published until 26 October 2020. Collected data were analyzed for document type, subject area, top journal, citation number, and authors' collaboration network using VOSviewer 1.6.15, ScientoPy 2.0.3, Gephi 0.9.2, and SPSS 15 statistical tools. Results: After screening the 3185 retrieved records, 378 and 849 records, respectively from WOS and Scopus, remained for quantity analysis. Original and review articles were the two main types of papers in both databases. Top subject areas were drug and medicine, respectively in the WOS and Scopus databases. The top three productive countries in the field were China, the US, and India. The most cited article was a practice guideline in both databases. "Journal of Biomolecular Structure Dynamics" in WOS and "Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs" in Scopus were the top journals. Top keywords included "COVID-19″ and "Traditional Chinese Medicine". US authors had the highest collaboration with other authors. Conclusions: The current study provides a snapshot of the quantity and characteristics of published scholarly documents in recent months in the intersection of herbal medicines and COVID-19. Our findings help scientists to find the existing gaps, identify the active authors and scientific institutes to collaborate with and use their experience to produce new knowledge in the future.

Effect of vitamin E supplementation on cardiometabolic risk factors, inflammatory and oxidative markers and hormonal functions in PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome): a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrinopathy among reproductive-age women. Various therapeutical approaches are currently used to manage or control symptoms associated with PCOS. This systematic review intended to assess the effects of Vit E supplementation on cardiometabolic risk factors, inflammatory and oxidative markers, and hormonal functions in PCOS women based on the clinical trial's results. The databases including PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane, Web of Science, and Embase were used to find all relevant studies. The authors reviewed all relevant clinical trials via systematic evaluation of abstracts and titles. Searches were conducted on August 1, 2020. After the initial search and reading of the article's title and abstract, 353 articles were reviewed; finally, 12 articles met the inclusion criteria. Vitamin E supplementation improves lipid profile, decreases insulin and HOMA-IR levels. Furthermore, while Vitamin E supplementation decreases LH and testosterone concentrations, it increases FSH and progestrone concentrations. The following meta-analysis showed that vitamin E supplementation made statistically significant improvements in triglyceride (TG) and low-density lipoproteins (LDL) levels, meanwhile, pooled mean difference for waist circumference (WC) and HOMA-IR were also statistically significant. Supplementary regimens containing vitamin E can positively affect metabolic and hormonal parameters in women with PCOS.

The effects of dietary/herbal supplements and the serum levels of micronutrients on the healing of diabetic foot ulcers in animal and human models: a systematic review.

PURPOSE: Diabetic Foot Ulcer (DFU) is one of the common and serious complications in patients with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) worldwide. Given the considerable tendency of patients suffering from DFU to use the complementary therapies, the objectives of this study were to: (i) summarize the effects of dietary and herbal supplements on DFU characteristics and metabolic parameters in both animal models and clinical trials, and (ii) evaluate any links between the serum levels of micronutrients and DFU in observational studies. METHODS: A systematic search in five electronic databases including PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Library was conducted to find relevant English language published from 1990 until 31 December 2018. RESULTS: Of a total of 8603 studies, 30 eligible papers including animal studies (n = 15), clinical trials (n = 7), and observational works (n = 8) were included in the systematic review. We found that some dietary/herbal supplements and micronutrients had positive effects on the wound healing. However, limited evidence is existed. Also, lower serum levels of vitamin D, C, vitamin E, and selenium in patients with DFU were likely to increase the risk of DFU, leading to impaired wound healing. CONCLUSION: Findings suggested that some dietary and herbal supplements such as Vitamin D, Magnesium, Vitamin E, Probiotic, Zinc, and Pycnogenol would be effective on wound healing of DFUs. However, further high-quality randomized controlled clinical trials and prospective cohort studies are needed to clarify the roles of micronutrients and other dietary and herbal supplements on the progress and treatment of DFU.

Quality of reporting of randomized controlled trials of herbal medicines conducted in metabolic disorders in Middle East countries: A systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Based on WHO recommendation for considering herbal medicine as an inexpensive appropriate method to treat metabolic disorders, conducting randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is increasing worldwide. Since poor quality RCTs can lead to wrong conclusion, we assessed the quality of reporting of herbal medicines' RCTs conducted in Middle East in a systematic review study. MATERIALS & METHODS: All herbal medicines' RCTs in metabolic disorders (diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, hyperlipidemia, obesity and osteoporosis) conducted in Middle East countries and published before January 2017 were included. To obtain all related studies PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochran library, and Embase web databases were searched. Exclusion criteria were animal studies, non-herbal medicines' RCTs, RCTs conducted in Type 1 diabetes, in children or pregnant women. We used Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) checklist for reporting study selection processes as well as Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement for assessment of quality of reporting. RESULTS: Out of 5319 identified studies, 215 RCTs were included. The proportion of published RCTs in the topic increased significantly over the time (P < 0.001). The total mean ±â€¯SD score for 37 items of CONSORT checklist was 21.15 ±â€¯4.27. Most of RCTs (60%) were not reported randomization in the title. Some important items were incompletely reported including trial registration (42.3%), sample size estimation (38.1%), randomization method (35.3%), generation of allocation (27.9%), and concealment of allocation (13.5%). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that the quality of reporting of herbal medicines' RCTs in metabolic disorders has improved over time in Middle East, but remains suboptimal.

Efficacy, safety, and mechanisms of herbal medicines used in the treatment of obesity: A protocol for systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: This systematic review protocol aims to perform a protocol for assessing the effectiveness, safety, and mechanism of herbal medicines for the treatment of obesity and metabolic syndrome. Some systematic reviews conducted earlier have evaluated the efficacy of herbal medicine to treat obesity and metabolic syndrome. Owing to the huge burden imposed by obesity in the recent years, a need is felt for conducting new systematic reviews on the topic of obesity with a focus on randomized clinical trials, we felt the need. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: All relevant clinical trials that examine the effectiveness of herbal medicines for the treatment of obesity and metabolic syndrome without restrictions on publication status will be applied.Four electronic databases will be searched: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. The main outcome is expected to be an improvement in the body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, body fat (weight or mass of visceral adipose tissue, fat mass or percent), and appetite.Selection studies, data extraction, and risk of bias will be assessed independently by 2 authors. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: In this study, ethical approval is not required because the data that will be used are not subjects and the results will be discussed through peer-reviewed publications. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: PROSPEROCRD42016049753.

Scientometric study of academic publications on antioxidative herbal medicines in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

BACKGROUND: Scientometric analysis is increasingly used for research assessment. We aimed to perform a scientometric analysis of research productivity in field of antioxidative hypoglycemic herbal medicine and diabetes. METHODS: Some of search terms were "type 2 diabetes", "antioxidant", "herb", "phytotherapy", "ethnopharmacology", "Chinese medicine", "traditional medicine", in Scopus web databases until January 2015, and limited to human. The collected data were used to generate the specific features such as publication year, main journal in the field, citation, subject area, and co-authorship network of authors and institutes. Data was analyzed using analysis tools provided by Scopus database, SPSS version 11 and VOSviewer software. RESULTS: Overall, 468 studies were related to this topic in human. The number of publications in the field showed an increasing trend. Majority of the published papers were original articles (71 %) and the most productive year was 2013. Top subject areas were medicine followed by drug. The first productive country was the US. The documents were cited totally 10724 times with average citation/article 22.91, and h-index 55. The highest cited article was a systematic review study, and top source was "Journal of Ethnopharmacology". The highest international collaboration was with the US. Top authors and institutes in the co-authorship network assessment were from Iran. CONCLUSIONS: A promising scientific productivity is shown in the studied field world wide. This study provided practical information to researchers who look for studies with potentially highly citation, and also would be helpful for researchers to conduct better researches that eventually could lead to more publications in this field.

Vitamin B12 supplementation in end stage renal diseases: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Hyperhomocysteinemia is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease particularly in patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD). Vitamin B12 supplementation on its own still remains as a controversial issue for clinicians in decreasing the level of homcysteine in this group of patients. METHODS: Using all randomized controlled trials (RCTs), clinical trials and pre-post-trial studies found during January 1999 to March 2014, we conducted a systematic review which assessed the effects of vitamin B12 in decreasing homocysteine levels in patients with ESRD. RESULTS: The findings of this study revealed that, overall, the greatest effect of B12 supplementation on decreasing homocysteine levels in patients with ESRDs occurred when it was combined with folate supplementation. It was also demonstrated that injection treatments might be more beneficial than oral intake treatments. CONCLUSION: More rigorous studies are needed to draw a firm conclusion about B12 therapy and the level of homocyteine in patients with ESRD.

Trends in publication on evidence-based antioxidative herbal medicines in management of diabetic nephropathy.

BACKGROUND: Recently, popularity and use of herbal medicine in treatment of diabetes have been increased. Since, oxidative stress is known as the main underlying pathophysiology of diabetes and its complications, the purpose of this bibliometric study is to assess the global scientific production analysis and developing its trend in field of antioxidative hypoglycemic herbal medicines and diabetic nephropathy focusing on the scientific publication numbers, citations, geographical distribution in the world and determining the main journal (source) in the field. METHODS: Our search terms were "diabetes", "renal", "nephropathy", "herb", "Chinese medicine", "traditional medicine", and "antioxidant" from Scopus database until January 2015 and analysis of the distribution of words in the publication year, main journal (source) in the field, geographical distribution, documents' type and language, subject area, and h-index of citations were crried out. The Scopus analysis tools and VOSviewer software version 1.6.3 have been used for analysis. RESULTS: Within 1166 papers were published until year 2015, 78 studies were related to this topic in human. Increasing trend in number of related researches was shown. Fifty eight percent of the published papers were original articles, and the highest number was produced in 2013 with 21 documents. Top subject areas were medicine with global publication share of 71.8 %, and pharmacology was ranked the second (39.7 %). Iran was the first country with global publication. The total citation of the documents were 2518 times and h-index was 24. The highest cited paper was a review article with 336 citation number, and top source was "Journal of Medicinal Plants". Both of top authors and affiliation were from Iran; "Tehran University of Medical Sciences". Also, top author in the co-authorship mapping and clustering assessment was from Iran. CONCLUSIONS: Although, we found an ascending trend of scientific publications in field of antioxidative herbal medicine and diabetic nephropathy with a good position for Iran, the number of publications is insufficient and more researches in this topic is necessary.