Herbal medicine for ocular diseases: An age old therapy and its future perspective

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jddst.2021.102979
• Publication Date: 2021-11-16T17:39:39Z
• Authors: Archana S. Pokkalath; Apurva Sawant; Sujata P. Sawarkar
• Keywords: Modalities

Abstract Herbal medicines have been quintessential elements of therapeutic systems for ocular ailments in many ancient civilizations. The current invasive and non-invasive treatment modalities suffer from some of the shortcomings like low bioavailability or severe ocular side effects. In recent years many preclinical studies have been conducted using re-emerging herbal moieties. These studies have been conducted with an aim to explore these naturally derived interventions for prophylaxis and management of anterior and posterior segment eye diseases. The present review provides an insight of various strategies envisaged to overcome the barriers in ocular drug delivery, along with summarized recent findings on several herbs that have been evaluated for antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective and anti-angiogenic role in various vision-threatening diseases. The emerging nanotechnology-based drug delivery approaches have paved the way for effective targeted and sustained delivery to both anterior and posterior eye segments. This review unfolds various facets of herbal drugs and their phytoconstituents, their utility and promising role in the treatment of ocular diseases, their shortcomings and various experimental studies being conducted by various research groups to mitigate them. Their view also provides a brief overview of the on-going clinical trials and the regulatory aspects concerning the use of herbal alternatives for ocular therapies.