Medicinal Plants and Their Finished Marketed Herbal Products Used for Treatment of Liver Diseases in Ghana; A Field Survey and Review

Background and Objective: Hepatic disorders are conditions that affect the structure or function of the human liver. Causes include microbes and their toxins, ionizing radiations and abuse of drugs. Medicinal plant products have been an alternative for the management of these diseases due to the expensive, unavailability and harmful side effects of pharmaceutical drugs. The aim of this study was to determine whether plant species used in preparing herbal medicinal products for treatment of liver diseases have reported hepatoprotective activity. Materials and Methods: A field survey was conducted using information from television, radio and market vans to identify the medicines and purchase them from the herbal shops. The plant species and parts used in manufacturing were extracted from the product insert and the Traditional and Alternative Medicine Council logbook. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) instrument was adopted in conducting the review. A search was conducted on Google Scholar, PubMed and Elsevier databases on hepatoprotection activity of the plant species. Results: In all, 175 articles met the criteria for the quantitative synthesis and were used for the review. For the plants, 56 species were used by 20 manufacturing companies in producing 25 herbal medicinal products. Khaya senegalensiswas the most predominant plant species (9/25, 36.0% products). In terms of parts, leaves (40/56,71.4% of plant species) were the most prevalent part used. On databases, 41/56 (73.2%) plant species had hepatoprotective activity while 15 (26.8%) had no data for hepatoprotective activity. Crataegus oxyacantha was the plant species with the most parts reported parts (7 different parts). Moringa oleifera was most extracted (7 different solvents) and most tested against hepatotoxicity induced with 20 different toxicants. Conclusion: There is sufficient scientific data on the hepatotoxicity activity of plant species used for herbal formulations against liver disorders. Practitioners and Researchers should focus on isolation and testing of the active phytochemicals.