Natural Active Compounds from Plant Food and Chinese Herbal Medicine for Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Abstract

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become more prevalent worldwide. It is often associated with some metabolic diseases, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. With increasing focus on the treatment of fatty liver, much attention has been paid to numerous medicinal herbs and dietary substances to provide a new strategy for NAFLD treatment. The natural active compounds from the herbs or diet have been studied as promising treatments for NAFLD. This study aimed to summarize the use and mechanism of action of natural active compounds in the treatment of NAFLD in the recent 10 years. An updated search was conducted on the PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases from 2006 (for studies on silibinin, resveratrol, curcumin, and berberine compounds since 2010). Fifty-nine active compounds for NAFLD treatment were presented in detail in textual form and tabular form according to their chemical classification.

Keywords: Active compounds; Chinese herbal medicine; nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; obesity; plant food; type 2 diabetes.