The Pharmacological Effects of Natural Products and Herbs in Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) is a common disease in older men. The symptoms of BPH is urination frequency, frequent night urination and a sense of urgency. Herbal medicine is commonly used as a treatment for BPH. Herbs and natural products are acceptable for improving quality of life or adjuvant use in Western countries. In this review article, we will introduce the pharmacological action of herbs and natural products in controlling the lower urinary tract symptoms associated with BPH. Method: This review gathers the information from electronic and scientific literature database such as Pubmed, Medline, ScienceDirect and so on. In this review, we focus on the pharmacological effects of Serenoa repenes, lycopene (extraction from tomato), Urtica dioica (root), Pygeum africanum (bark). Conclusions: Phytotherapy is well acceptable for the alleviating the symptoms of BPH. There are a lot of plants with multi-pharmacological effects in the controlling BPH. The active ingredients could be developed as a new drug in the future. Keyword: Benign prostatic hyperplasia; Serenoa repens; Urtica dioica; Lycopene; Pygeum africanum; Apoptosis