Available online 13 May 2023

Author links open overlay panel, , AbstractBackground

Herbal medicines are frequently utilized for healthcare purposes. Due to their increased use globally, it is essential to understand the characteristics of the research literature published on this topic.

Methods

Search strategies were informed by the top-selling herbal supplements from the 2020 HerbalGram Market Report. The Natural Medicines database was used to identify and record the most common terms used to refer to the herbs listed in the market report. Searches were run on Scopus on August 02, 2021, and all results were exported on the same day to avoid discrepancies due to database updates. Bibliometric data were collected, including information on total number of publications, publications per year, number of authors and journals, open access status, document type, author affiliations, most highly published authors, institutional affiliations, funding sponsors, country of publication, and most highly cited publications. VOSViewer, a software tool, was used to construct and visualize bibliometric networks.

Results

A total of 42385 articles published by 92814 unique authors between 1827 and 2021 were obtained. An overall upward trend was observed in the number of publications, with the most widely researched herbal medicines being wheatgrass, turmeric, barley and garlic. The most productive countries were the United States (n=6957) and China (n=5426).

Conclusions

A continuous upward trend was identified with respect to the volume of research literature published about this subset of herbal medicines. Due to the projected increase of the use of these medicines, future research should examine and analyse the characteristics of emerging publications in this field.

Section snippetsBackground

Herbal medicine can be defined as “an approach to wellness and healing which uses plant or plant-derived preparations to treat, prevent, or cure various health conditions and ailments, herbal medicine is incorporated into various medical systems” [1], [2]. The term herbs “refers to plants used in various forms or preparations, valued for their therapeutic benefits, and sold as dietary supplements” [1]. Over the past decade, there has been a substantial increase in the use of herbal medicines

Methods

The 2020 HerbalGram Market Report was utilized to identify and record the names and Latin binomials of the 40 herbal supplements yielding the highest total sales [15]. As no list of commonly used herbal medicines could be identified from an authoritative source, we utilized the list of herbal supplements yielding the highest total sales as provided by the HerbalGram Market Report. Cannabidiol was also included as an herbal supplement in the market report. However, we elected to remove this term

Results

A total of 42 385 (12 481 open access) publications were published by 92 814 unique authors. The results were published between 1827 and 2021 and depict an overall upward trend in terms of number of publications. This is depicted in Fig. 1. There has been a 36% increase in the quantity of publications about the herbal medicines which correspond with the herbal supplements yielding the highest total sales between the 2010 and 2020. The highest number of publications were observed in the year

Discussion

The purpose of conducting this bibliometric analysis is to understand the characteristics of the literature about herbal medicines corresponding with the herbal supplements yielding the highest total sales provided in the 2020 HerbalGram Market Report. Between 2010 and 2020, there has been a 36% increase in the quantity of literature about these herbal medicines. According to the HerbalGram Market Report, the three herbal supplements yielding the highest total sales were horehound (Marrubium

Conclusions

This study identified the characteristics of over 42 000 publications, 12 481 of which were open access. This constitutes the largest bibliometric analysis on this subject area thus far. Across this subset of literature, the most productive countries were the United States, China, and India. The most widely researched herbal supplements were wheatgrass, turmeric, barley, garlic and green tea. There has been a continuous upward trend since 1827 in the number of publications on commonly sold

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

This study involved a bibliometric analysis of peer-reviewed literature only; it did not require ethics approval or consent to participate.

Uncited reference

[54]

Funding

This study was unfunded.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

JYN: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft. SA: Data curation, Formal Analysis, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing. NDP: Data curation, Formal Analysis, Validation, Visualization, Writing – review & editing

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Acknowledgements

JYN was awarded a Research Scholarship and an Entrance Scholarship from the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University.

Avail ability of Data and Materials

All relevant data are included in this manuscript.

Authors’ Contributions

JYN: designed and conceptualized the study, collected and analysed data, drafted the manuscript, and gave final approval of the version to be published. SA: assisted with the collection and analysis of data, made critical revisions to the manuscript, and gave

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