Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Mar-Apr;9(2):101-116.

Treatment of liver and spleen illnesses by herbs: Recommendations of Avicenna's heritage "Canon of Medicine"

Mozhgan Ghobadi Pour  1 , Naser Mirazi  1 , Asghar Seif  2
Affiliations
Review

Treatment of liver and spleen illnesses by herbs: Recommendations of Avicenna's heritage "Canon of Medicine"

Mozhgan Ghobadi Pour et al. Avicenna J Phytomed. 2019 Mar-Apr.

Abstract

Objective: Avicenna (Abu Ali al-Hossein ibn Abdullah ibn Sina) who had a special attention toward diseases treatments, gathered results of ages of herbal medicine experiments on humans and animals in his book "Al-Qānūn fī Ṭibb" or "The Canon of Medicine", which is a reliable book in Iranian traditional medicine. The aim of this research was to build a reliable list of plants effective against liver and spleen diseases, based on Avicenna's book (volume 2).

Materials and methods: By studying the monographs, introduced agents that have been effective in liver and spleen diseases were identified. Upon their origin and effectiveness in diseases of the liver, spleen or both, treatments were organized.

Results: From a huge number of drugs, 163 plants from 73 families were found to be effective in treatment of liver and spleen illnesses. In addition, 30 non-herbal agents effective in treatment of liver diseases were detected. The Lamiaceae family have the most effective herbs for treatment of diseases of the liver, spleen or both. Hemp Agrimony, Irsā, and Fūdhanj achieved the highest scores.

Conclusion: The effects of different plants on liver and spleen diseases were indicated in Avicenna's book. Due to the report on the above book, further studies needed specially on the effect of Irsā (Iris ensata) and family Lamiaceae on liver and spleen diseases.

Keywords: Herbal medicine; Liver; Materia medica; Spleen.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest associated with this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The flow chart of the study
Figure 2
Figure 2
. Effective herbs against liver and spleen diseases mentioned in Avicenna’s book. Scores are according to the number of effects that every herb has been prescribed by Avicenna
Figure 3
Figure 3
Histogram of families with the highest number of effective herbs
Figure 4
Figure 4
Relationship between the plant families and a mean of scores of their herbs. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. p>0.05
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Akbarzadeh T, Sabourian R, Saeedi M, Rezaeizadeh H, Khanavi M, Ardekani MRS. Liver tonics: review of plants used in Iranian traditional medicine. Asian Pac J Trop Biomed. 2015;5:170–181.
    1. Akdogan M, Ozguner M, Aydin G, Gokalp O. Investigation of biochemical and histopathological effects of Mentha piperita Labiatae and Mentha spicata Labiatae on liver tissue in rats. Hum Exp Toxicol. 2004;23:21–28. - PubMed
    1. Amat N, Upur H, Blazekovic B. In vivo hepatoprotective activity of the aqueous extract of Artemisia absinthium L against chemically and immunologically induced liver injuries in mice. J Ethnopharmacol. 2010;131:478–484. - PubMed
    1. Douros A, Bronder E, Andersohn F, Klimpel A, Kreutz R, Garbe E, Bolbrinker J. Herb-Induced Liver Injury in the Berlin Case-Control Surveillance Study. Int J Mol Sci. 2016:17. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Edgar J, Lin H, Kumana C, Ng M. Pyrrolizidine alkaloid composition of three Chinese medicinal herbs, Eupatorium cannabinum, E japonicum and Crotalaria assamica. Am J Chin Med. 1992;20:281–288. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources