The hematinic effect of some medicinal plants used traditionally for the treatment of anemia: A narrative review

Abstract

Traditional folk medicine has become an issue of international importance and interest. A high percentage of the world’s population uses medicinal plants to treat diseases, and in African countries, this rate is much higher. It has been estimated that in many developing countries, a large proportion of the population depends primarily on medicinal plants and traditional practitioners to address their primary healthcare needs, including the prevention and treatment of anemia, despite the availability of modern medicines. Anemia can be caused by iron deficiency, Vitamin B12 deficiency, folate deficiency, and other causes. Iron intervention aims to move at-risk populations to a nutritional sufficiency status aligned with good health. One or two actions cannot effectively address iron deficiency. No single effective intervention for eliminating iron deficiency exists in most real-life situations. An appropriate set of intervention strategies must be selected, weighed, integrated, and adapted to the needs of different populations, environments, and the availability of resources. This narrative review provides information about the hematinic effects of some plants used traditionally to treat and prevent anemia. The study may impact a considerable sector of anemia patients who use plant preparations for treating anemia because they mostly use them without any supportive evidence of their efficacy.

Keywords

• anemia
• efficacy
• folk medicine
• hematinic
• iron deficiency anemia
• medicinal
• plants
• traditional medicine