Medicinal plants administered to control hypertension in Ethiopia: ethnomedicine, pharmacology, nutraceutical, phytochemistry, toxicology, and policy perspectives.

Abstract

In traditional folk medicine, medicinal plants are widely employed. High blood pressure, a major cause of morbidity and mortality in healthcare settings, is linked to the risk of cardiovascular illnesses and many other serious health issues that can develop from it. This review provides background regarding hypertension, including introductory concepts, risk factors, and treatment approaches. Hypertension may not be effectively treated with the use of diuretics, ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, alpha-blockers, calcium channel blockers, direct vasodilators, renin inhibitors, etc. These drugs' side effects include intolerance, weakened disease control, and improper therapy management. Therefore, an approach for extracting new therapeutic chemicals from medicinal plants is receiving attention today. As a result, this article provides a list of 85 plant species from 40 families, compiling data on ethnobotanical claims, plant parts used to make extracts, different types of extracts and study animals, nutracuticals' intended use, the antihypertensive effect of the extracts, their mode of action, clinical trials, toxicity profile, etc. It also mentions 55 specific chemical compounds that have shown potential to lower blood pressure in lab tests and live subjects, along with their dosage and how they work, based on online searches of published studies from different sources. Researchers looking into and developing new anti-hypertensive therapies to treat hypertension would benefit from our current work. We also tried to address the policy implications.