Herbal medicines became more and more popular among the female population all over the world. In many areas, natural products are traditionally used to improve body conditions in several time periods of women’s life, including adolescent, reproductive, and menopausal periods. In the adolescent period, herbal medicine is used to improve development. At childbearing age, herbal medicine is used to treat menstruation problems, decrease vaginal infection, and increase fertility. During pregnancy, herbal medicine is used to reduce discomfort and stabilize the fetus. After menopause, herbal medicine can be used to alleviate symptoms, and delay degeneration. All the above-mentioned herbal medicine uses have been considered to contribute to improving the life quality of women. The above-mentioned indications for herbs are usually not disease conditions. Instead, herbs are used to relieve symptoms, improve life quality, and prevent disease.
Although we have known that herbal medicines are used to improve women’s life, only a few of them have been well-studied, such as
Angelica sinensis in the eastern world and
Cimicifuga spp. in the western world. Some of them are disclosed but the pharmacological mechanisms are not clear. For example,
Phyla nodiflora (L.) Greene is used by people in Southern China to improve fertility, but virtually no reports have been published on its efficacy and mechanism. There are many botanical drugs and preparations which have not been studied in detail and have not been evaluated pharmacologically. Often, their use is purely based on local traditional medical theory instead of modern scientific physiological or pharmacological knowledge, which makes them difficult to understand and to use by people from other cultural backgrounds. Studies are needed on this topic to disclose herbs used for women all over the world. A further challenge is to clarify the detailed mechanisms and active compounds for these herbs.
We welcome studies with relevance for women which can address major challenges both from a pharmacological/clinical, but also from a general healthcare perspective, including the following subtopics, but not limited to:
• Pharmacological studies for herbal medicines (raw materials, extracts, or compounds) that are used specifically in a certain time period of women’s life.
• Surveys of medical herbs used for adolescence and reproduction in women, and menopause.
• Herbs and their pharmacological mechanisms to improve fertility;
• Efficacies and pharmacological mechanisms associated with the use of herbal medicines in pregnant individuals.
• Comparison of herbal medicines used for women in different areas of the world.
• Treatment of women-relevant symptoms and diseases using herbal medicine in a certain traditional culture.
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All the manuscripts submitted to this project will be peer-reviewed and need to fully comply with the
Four Pillars of Best Practice in Ethnopharmacology (you can freely download the full version
here).