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Updated: Jul 13, 2025
Electroacupuncture Combined with Chinese Medicine Ironing Therapy for Functional Constipation
Published on: July 5, 2024
Herbal Remedies for Constipation-Predominant Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled
Giuseppe Chiarioni1,2, Stefan Lucian Popa3, Abdulrahman Ismaiel3
1Division of Gastroenterology B, AOUI Verona, 37126 Verona, Italy.
Background:
Constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-C) is a common gastrointestinal disorder characterized by abdominal pain and altered bowel habits. Conventional treatments for IBS-C often provide limited efficiency, leading to an increasing interest in exploring herbal remedies. This systematic review aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of herbal remedies in the management of IBS-C.
Materials And Methods:
A comprehensive search of PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library was conducted to identify relevant studies published up to July 2023 and data extraction was performed independently by two reviewers.
Results:
Overall, the included studies demonstrated some evidence of the beneficial effects of herbal remedies on IBS-C symptoms, including improvements in bowel frequency, stool consistency, abdominal pain, and quality of life. However, the heterogeneity of the interventions and outcome measures limited the ability to perform a meta-analysis.
Conclusion:
This systematic review suggests that herbal remedies may have potential benefits in the management of IBS-C. However, the quality of evidence is limited, and further well-designed, large-scale RCTs are needed to establish the efficacy and safety of specific herbal remedies for IBS-C. Clinicians should exercise caution when recommending herbal remedies and consider individual patient characteristics and preferences.
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