Current approaches in the therapeutic use of herbal medications for chronic kidney diseases

A combination of herbal medication and pharma-therapies is usual practice to treat chronic kidney disease especially in Asian region. Because of limited treatment options for chronic kidney disease (CKD), the use of traditional herbal medication to alleviate the urogenital problems is the alternate therapeutic selection. Only few studies are available in supporting the usefulness of medicinal plants for CKD, though people are using it since very long. Many active ingredients of traditional medicinal plants are unidentified which eventually results into undetermined toxicities. Here, we made attempt to summarize the recent outcomes for the use of herbal medicine in treatment of CKD in human and in animal studies. About 51 studies were found to describe the utilization of herbal drugs in treatment of CKD in both human and laboratory animals, 19 studies described the clinical application of about 14 medicinal plants used against CKD in human and 32 studies demonstrated the beneficial use of 19 medicinal plants in animal models and in vitro studies for CKD treatment. To embody the therapeutic use of herbal medications in CKD, molecular studies need to execute to identify active components of medicinal herbs and their mechanism of action. A well-designed clinical trials and rigorous pharmacological studies are warranted for determination of the safety standards required for therapeutic agents of herbal medicines.