Medicinal plants consumption against urinary tract infections: a narrative review of the current evidence

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are usual diseases caused by different strains of microorganisms. Many antibiotics have been applied for the treatment of these infections. However, the development of multidrug-resistant strains is a major problem in these treatments. As alternative complementary agents, several medicinal plants are often used to prevent and/or treat these diseases.

This review summarized the current evidence about the efficacy of medicinal plants' consumption to prevent and/or co-treat UTIs. The most precise scientific databases, e.g. Medline, Scopus, and Web of Science were comprehensively searched, using relative keywords to identify the relative in vivo and ex vivo animal and human studies.

Current studies supported evidence for potential benefit overall concerning medicinal plants' consumption against UTIs by preventing bacterial adherence and inhibiting inflammation cascades through responding immunologically to bacteria invasion. However, most of the current evidence have been focused on in vivo and ex vivo animal studies, while human studies are currently limited and did not focus on a specific medicinal plant. Thus, well-designed clinical trials for long study periods focused on individual medicinal plants are intensely recommended to delineate their effectiveness on the prevention and/or co-treatment of UTIs.