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. 2021 Aug 6:12:650141.
doi: 10.3389/fphar.2021.650141. eCollection 2021.

A Scientometric Visualization Analysis for Natural Products on Cancer Research from 2008 to 2020

Haitao Chen  1 , Rongrong Li  2 , Fan Zhang  1 , Qinghua Yao  3 , Yong Guo  4
Affiliations

A Scientometric Visualization Analysis for Natural Products on Cancer Research from 2008 to 2020

Haitao Chen et al. Front Pharmacol. .

Abstract

Background: An increasing number of studies have shown that natural products have anti-tumor effects, and it has become a hotspot in cancer research. However, few bibliometric analyses have been examined in this field systematically. The current study aimed to explore the status and provide the developing trends in the natural products on cancer research. Methods: Publications on natural products in cancer research were extracted from the Web of Science core collection database. CiteSpace (5.6.R3) software and GraphPad prism 6 were used to analyze and plot the references. Results: On February 1, 2021, 34,611 records of natural products in cancer research published from 2008 to 2020 were collected. The United States was the driving force, with a strong academic reputation in this area. The top-contributing institution was the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Most publications were published in Molecules. Efferth Thomas was the most prolific author, while Newman DJ was the most cited and frequently co-cited author. Flavonoid, curcumin, and polyphenol were the most widely studied natural products. Oleanolic acid and rosmarinic acid have gradually become research hotspots recently. Breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colorectal cancer were the most common types of cancer in this field. "Natural killer cell" was the leading research hotspot. The keywords of "leaf extract," "molecular docking" and "gold nanoparticle" appeared most recently as research frontiers. Conclusion: Our results provided a general overview of the major research directions of natural products research in cancer. The mechanisms of natural products, especially those related to molecular docking, gold nanoparticle, gut microbiota, and immune checkpoints may soon become hotspots and should be closely monitored.

Keywords: bibliometric; cancer; citation analysis; gut microbiota; immune checkpoint; molecular docking; natural product.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Trends in the number of publications of country/regions in natural products in cancer research. (A) The annual worldwide publication output. (B) The annual national publication output of the 10 most productive countries/regions.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
CiteSpace network visualization map of country/regions and institutions related to natural products in cancer research. (A) Collaboration analysis of countries/regions. (B) Collaboration analysis of institutions. The nodes represent countries/regions or institutions, and lines between the nodes represent cooperation relationships. The larger the node size, the larger the number of publications. The nodes in the outermost area with purple rings indicate high centrality.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
CiteSpace network visualization map of co-cited authors and co-cited references related to natural products in cancer research. (A) The network visualization map of co-cited authors of the publication. (B) The network visualization map of cited references. The nodes represent co-cited authors or cited references. The lines between the nodes represent co-citation relationships. The larger the node area, the larger the number of co-citations.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Timeline view of co-cited references related to natural products in cancer research. The cluster with warmer color and larger nodes contained more publications, indicating that this clustering issue was the hotspot in this field.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
The cluster of keywords related to natural products in cancer research. The different colors mean different clusters.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Keywords with periods of burst from 2018 onward among the top 75 burst keywords in articles related to natural products in cancer research.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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