Rimedi fitoterapici per la sindrome dell’ovaio policistico. Review di clinical trials

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine dysfunction that affects fertile women, it manifests with following symptoms: oligo-amenorrhea and hyperandrogenism, accompanied by manifestations of acne, hirsutism and alopecia, until morphological alterations of the ovary, evident by ultra-sonographic evaluation and metabolic alterations, with several complications above all at cardiovascular level. Conventional pharmacological approaches are focused to the treatment of symptoms, through which syndrome manifests; although these aren�t always effi cacy, and also when they are effi cacy, due to the complexity of the disease, there are numerous adverse effects and the probability of pregnancy remains very low. For these reasons, many women affected to PCOS express the desire to use alternative treatments; hoping to can restore its physiological balance without debilitating adverse effects. Aim of this paper was to analyze medicinal plants with a scientifi c value in the treatments of PCOS symptoms. As regard, a prominent place is occupied from berberine, alkaloid widely used in the clinical as remedy of insulin-resistance, such as effectiveness to metformin; it is accompanied by cinnamon bark extract, used for glycaemia control in mellitus diabetes of type 2. Herbal remedies more used to treat the oligo-amenorrea are based on soia, Cimicifuga racemosa or Grifola frondosa, in particular this is a mushroom, little known in western medicine, but very interesting in therapy with clomifene citrate, and also in mono-therapy is effective as ovulation inductor. Other herbal remedies could be added at the list, such as Gymnema sylvestre, Dioscorea villosa and Vitex Agnus Castus, medicinal plants of which at the present there are promising results for PCOS treatment, but only at pre-clinical level. Concluding, phytotherapy potentially plays interesting role to cure PCOS syndrome, having wide possibilities of treatment and allowing integration/support to conventional pharmacology.