Zebrafish and bioactive compounds: a bibliometric review

Bibliometrics has become a crucial tool for evaluating and analyzing researchers' output. In recent decades, zebrafish has demonstrated its potential for studying oxidative stress, and the use of medicinal plants has proven essential in this context, as they are endowed with bioactive compounds that possess antioxidant properties. Thus, the aim of this study was to conduct a bibliometric review to analyze the evolution of publications concerning the concepts of "zebrafish" and "bioactive compounds." The Web of Science (WoS) database was utilized. Data on authors, countries, most cited journals, co-authorship between countries and authors, co-occurrence of keywords, keyword co-occurrence by publication year, and co-citation of references were analyzed using VOSviewer software. A total of 170 documents were retrieved, spanning the years 2004 to 2024. Jean Luc Wolfender, the United States, and PLoS One were prominent among the authors, countries, and journals with the highest citations, respectively. Among the co-occurrence of keywords, the following were noteworthy: zebrafish (n = 60), bioactive compounds (n = 12), angiogenesis (n = 9), antioxidant (n = 8), oxidative stress (n = 8), apoptosis (n = 7), antioxidant activity (n = 7), and toxicity (n = 7). It was concluded that the highest number of published documents was observed in 2022. Moreover, from 2018 onward, there has been an increase in research using the zebrafish model and bioactive compounds, highlighting the field of Pharmacy/Pharmacology in the development of new drugs, with a strong emphasis on the use of medicinal plants.