Obesity is the most prevalent health problem affecting all age groups, and leads to many complications in the form of chronic heart disease, diabetes mellitus Type 2 and stroke. A systematic review about safety and efficacy of herbal medicines in the management of obesity in human was carried out by searching bibliographic data bases such as, PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and IranMedex, for studies reported between 30th December 2008 to 23rd April 2012 on human or animals, investigating the beneficial and harmful effects of herbal medicine to treat obesity. Actually we limited our search to such a narrow window of time in order to update our article published before December of 2008. In this update, the search terms were “obesity” and (“herbal medicine” or “plant”, “plant medicinal” or “medicine traditional”) without narrowing or limiting search items. Publications with available abstracts were reviewed only. Total publications found in the initial search were 651. Total number of publications for review study was 33 by excluding publications related to animals study.Studies with Nigella Sativa, Camellia Sinensis, Crocus Sativus L, Seaweed laminaria Digitata, Xantigen, virgin olive oil, Catechin enriched green tea, Monoselect Camellia, Oolong tea, Yacon syrup, Irvingia Gabonensi, Weighlevel, RCM-104 compound of Camellia Sinensis, Pistachio, Psyllium fibre, black Chinese tea, sea buckthorn and bilberries show significant decreases in body weight. Only, alginate-based brown seaweed and Laminaria Digitata caused an abdominal bloating and upper respiratory tract infection as the side effect in the trial group. No other significant adverse effects were reported in all 33 trials included in this article.In conclusion, Nigella Sativa, Camellia Synensis, Green Tea, and Black Chinese Tea seem to have satisfactory anti-obesity effects. The effect size of these medicinal plants is a critical point that should be considered for interpretation. Although there was no report for side effect in these trials, we believe that safety of these plants still remains to be elucidated by further long-term studies.

This review focuses on the efficacy and safety of effective herbal medicines in the management of obesity in humans and animals. PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and IranMedex databases were searched up to December 30, 2008. The search terms were "obesity" and ("herbal medicine" or "plant", "plant medicinal" or "medicine traditional") without narrowing or limiting search elements. All of the human and animal studies on the effects of herbs with the key outcome of change in anthropometric measures such as body weight and waist-hip circumference, body fat, amount of food intake, and appetite were included. In vitro studies, reviews, and letters to editors were excluded. Of the publications identified in the initial database, 915 results were identified and reviewed, and a total of 77 studies were included (19 human and 58 animal studies). Studies with Cissus quadrangularis (CQ), Sambucus nigra, Asparagus officinalis, Garcinia atroviridis, ephedra and caffeine, Slimax (extract of several plants including Zingiber officinale and Bofutsushosan) showed a significant decrease in body weight. In 41 animal studies, significant weight loss or inhibition of weight gain was found. No significant adverse effects or mortality were observed except in studies with supplements containing ephedra, caffeine and Bofutsushosan. In conclusion, compounds containing ephedra, CQ, ginseng, bitter melon, and zingiber were found to be effective in the management of obesity. Attention to these natural compounds would open a new approach for novel therapeutic and more effective agents.

BackgroundObesity is one of the most important underlying risk factors for chronic disease. Dramatically increasing and following complication of obesity should be alerted to health politicians and practitioners to prevent associated health risks. This review aimed to give a better insight into the prevalence of obesity and overweight in different areas of Iran.MethodAll published internal (SID, Irandoc, Iranmedex), and international (Web of Knowledge, Pubmed, Scopus) source studies, reported the prevalence of overweight/obesity among normal population samples, during Jan 2005 through Jan 2014, were assessed in this review. Paper selection processes were done by two researchers separately. Studies which met the eligible criteria were included in this review.ResultOne hundred ninety three eligible studies enter into our review. Of 193 final selected studies, 86 (15 national, 71 sub national) of them were reported the prevalence of obesity/overweight in adult, and 107 studies (11 national, 96 sub national) in under-18 by individual. The range of overweight and obesity prevalence in national studies in adult, was 27.0-38.5 (95% CI: 26.8-27.1, 37.2-39.8), and 12.6-25.9 (95% CI: 12.2-13.0, 24.9-26.8), separately. In under-18 the range of overweight and obesity prevalence in national studies were 5.0-13.5 (95% CI: 4.5-5.5, 13.4-13.6), and 3.2-11.9 (95% CI: 3.0-3.4, 11.3-12.4).ConclusionObesity as an important public health problem has been discussed in recent few decades worldwide. Although the national reported prevalence of obesity in Iran was not considerably diverse, but remarkable differences were seen in the sub national prevalence which must be noticed more in political health programs especially among women and children.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40200-014-0121-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Amongst these useful herbs, some like Cinnamon, Silybum marianum, Garlic, Nigella, and Echium seem potential targets of future effective drugs for diseases in which free radical damage play a pathogenical role.