Medicinal Plants and Urinary Tract Infections: An update

Abstract

Medicinal plants are part and parcel of human society to combat diseases from the dawn of civilization. According to World Health Organization (WHO), about 80% of the world population rely chiefly on plant based traditional medicine specially for their primary health care needs and there has been a worldwide move towards the use of traditional medicines due to concerns over the more invasive, expensive and potentially toxic main stream practices. This review gives a bird’s eye view on the updated information on urinary tract infections (UTIs) , different categories of urologic herbs, historical use and modern scientific investigations on some important urologic herbs, clinical studies, some isolated chemical compounds and their possible side effects.

Keywords: Medicinal plants; Urinary Tract Infections; Historical use; Scientific analysis; Clinical studies; Bioactive constituents; Possible side effects