Worldwide Research Trends on Medicinal Plants

Esther Salmerón-Manzano, Jose Antonio Garrido-Cardenas and Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro
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Esther Salmerón-Manzano: Faculty of Law, Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR), 26006 Logroño, Spain
Jose Antonio Garrido-Cardenas: Department of Biology and Geology, University of Almeria, ceiA3, 04120 Almeria, Spain
Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro: Department of Engineering, University of Almeria, ceiA3, 04120 Almeria, Spain

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 10, 1-20

Abstract: The use of medicinal plants has been done since ancient times and may even be considered the origin of modern medicine. Compounds of plant origin have been and still are an important source of compounds for drugs. In this study a bibliometric study of all the works indexed in the Scopus database until 2019 has been carried out, analyzing more than 100,000 publications. On the one hand, the main countries, institutions and authors researching this topic have been identified, as well as their evolution over time. On the other hand, the links between the authors, the countries and the topics under research have been analyzed through the detection of communities. The last two periods, from 2009 to 2014 and from 2015 to 2019, have been examined in terms of research topics. It has been observed that the areas of study or clusters have been reduced, those of the last period being those engaged in unclassified drug, traditional medicine, cancer, in vivo study—antidiabetic activity, and animals—anti-inflammatory activity. In summary, it has been observed that the trend in global research is focused more on the search for new medicines or active compounds rather than on the cultivation or domestication of plant species with this demonstrated potential.

Keywords: medicinal plants; drugs; worldwide research; bibliometrics; traditional medicine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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