1. Faculty of medicine, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran
Abstract
Introduction
It is estimated that nearly 36.7 million people live with human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) in the world and despite the success of anti-retroviral therapy (art), a safe and effective therapy is still urgently needed and this review wants to introduce herbal remedies and natural products as good candidates for this major global challenge
Methods
This review was conducted using pubmed, google scholar and science direct for english articles from 1998 to 2018 and the search keywords were “herbal remedies”, “natural products”, “hiv infection” and “aids”
Results
This review provides a history of herbal remedies against acquired immune deficiency syndrome (aids) with a particular focus on novel anti hiv plants and the mechanism of their actions and also presents the advantages, disadvantages and sources of each of the introduced plants (more than 50 plants)
Conclusion
As the results of this review shows, herbal remedies represent a strategic force in healthcare action, capable of complementing modern healthcare systems and due to the high cost of the current therapies of aids, candidates of herbal medicine have the potential to come up as drugs and provide a safe, economical and effective therapy for aids
