Mechanistic and Therapeutic Approach of Plants as an Anti-inflammatory Agent: A Review

Chronic inflammation is a prolonged immune response that leads to the development of numerous diseases, including arthritis, cardiovascular disorders, and metabolic syndromes. Currently, synthetic anti-inflammatory medications are widely used to treat chronic inflammation due to their high efficacy. However, their long-term use is often associated with serious side effects. This led to an urgent need to explore the anti-inflammatory drugs that are more efficient and exhibit few or no adverse effects. Several studies have revealed the anti-inflammatory properties of various plants. However, most focus primarily on listing anti-inflammatory plants and their phytoconstituents, with limited scientific validation. In addition, no compiled data is available that includes comprehensive pre-clinical and clinically validated studies of anti-inflammatory plants and their phytoconstituents. The current study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of chronic inflammation and its management, addressing the challenges of synthetic anti-inflammatory medications, and investigating the potential of plants and their phytoconstituents as anti-inflammatory agents, with scientific validation through preclinical and clinical studies. Literature was searched, analyzed, and compiled from PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar databases. The search terms used included anti-inflammatory plants, phytoconstituents, in-vitro and in-vivo, anti-inflammatory drugs, inflammation mechanism, etc., and several combinations of these keywords. A total of 297 publications published between August 1978 and February 2026 were included in this review. Overall, this review provides a detailed mechanistic explanation of plant-derived anti-inflammatory drugs for the treatment of chronic inflammation.