This review focuses on the efficacy of
herbal medicines for managing
dyspepsia in humans and animals. Searches were conducted on the PubMed, Science Direct, and Medline databases, for publications in the last 3 years. In each database, the search terms used consisted of the 2 key terms describing the disorder and subtypes plus each of the terms relating to the
therapy. The key terms used were "natural product" and "medicinal plant" in a cross-over with "
dyspepsia" and "functional
dyspepsia" (i.e., gastroprotection, Helicobacter pylori
infection, prokinetic). We included all human and animal studies on the effects of
herbal medicines reporting the key outcome of
dyspepsia symptoms. Preclinical studies using critically validated models showed that most medicinal plants with gastroprotective action had
antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, and antisecretory effects. Moreover, several species displayed anti Helicobacter pylori and prokinetic efficacy. The data availability of controlled clinical studies is currently minimal. The use of different methodologies and the minimal number of patients raise doubts about the effects of these preparations. Only adequate clinical trials with scientifically validated methods can determine whether different
herbal medicines can be used as viable alternatives to the conventional pharmacological treatments used to control
dyspepsia symptoms.