ABSTRACT

Therapy with plant extracts has a very long historical background in medicine. In older times when watchful waiting or surgery were the only two options of treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia, a “prostate pill” had been imagined as a very attractive means of therapy. Thus, plant extracts that were once used as traditional relief for urinary symptoms turned out to be prostate medications even before safe and effective medical treatment alternatives were introduced. Today, we have a considerable number of phytotherapeutic agents in the market yet remain to be scrutinized in terms of content, dosage, mechanism of action, effectivity and safety. In this paper, we review the current status of phytotherapy in benign prostatic hyperplasia and lower urinary tract symptoms complex.