Global Recent Trends Research of Herbal Medicine for Diabetes

Mellitus in a Decade (2014-2023): A Bibliometric Analysis

and Scientific Mapping

Nanang Wiyono

1,5,* a

, Ratih Dewi Yudhani

, Brian Wasita

and Anggraeni Janar Wulan

Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia

Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia

Department of Anatomical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine. Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia

Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Lampung, Bandar Lampung, Indonesia

Research Group of Brain, Degenerative Disease and Cancer, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta,

Indonesia

Keywords: Diabetes Mellitus, Herbal Medicine, Bibliometric.

Abstract: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a prevalent health issue on a global scale, characterized by the presence of persistent

hyperglycemia due to compromised insulin synthesis, usage, or both. Oral antidiabetic medications and

insulin have been the mainstay of diabetes treatment. A increasing body of research suggests that herbal

therapies may enhance or even replace diabetes medications. Objective: The objective of this study is to find

and assess diabetes-related herbal medicine research. This study examines publication patterns, renowned

authors, scientific publications, research contributions' geographical distribution and the important research

topics. Scopus was used to find herb research for DM papers. Use the database's "Search document"

functionality to collect basic publication and citation information, including title, abstract, and key functions.

The full bibliographic data was imported to Vosviewer for analysis. To illustrate title and abstract ideas and

notions, visualization maps were created. Based on a decade-long dataset spanning from 2014 to 2023, this

study reveals that there were 3,226 publications. The findings indicate that the growth and development of

herbs for DM experienced a notable increase. The Journal of Ethnopharmacology, with 241 scholarly articles,

is a leading herbal medication for DM journal. China leads the world in herbal diabetes research with 574

papers. With 18 articles, G. Zengin is the most prolific author in this field. The co-occurrence classification

of herbs for DM field development map yields six clusters. Diabetes mellitus, antioxidants, and herbal therapy

dominate the network. The bibliometric data shows that herbal diabetic treatments are becoming more popular.

The use of natural diabetic therapies is expected to change. Herbal medicine research is growing and becoming

more accessible.

1 INTRODUCTION

Diabetes mellitus is a pressing issue in worldwide

health, characterized by a rising prevalence and

consequential mortality (Lin et al., 2020; Robert &

Dawish, 2020). The prevalence of diabetes mellitus

has escalated to epidemic proportions, presenting

substantial obstacles to global public health systems

(Fang et al., 2022). Research findings have indicated

a concerning rise in the occurrence of diabetes

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0396-4337

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6781-8251

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5501-3541

mellitus, observed in both industrialized and

developing nations (Katulanda & Sheriff, 2009)

(Abebe et al., 2014). The impact of diabetes mellitus

goes beyond death, since it is also associated with

decreased life expectancy and heightened

susceptibility to complications (Lin et al., 2020). A

comprehensive comprehension of the patterns in

diabetes mellitus is of utmost importance in order to

facilitate efficient strategies for prevention,

Wiyono, N., Yudhani, R. D., Wasita, B. and Wulan, A. J.

Global Recent Trends Research of Herbal Medicine for Diabetes Mellitus in a Decade (2014-2023): A Bibliometric Analysis and Scientiﬁc Mapping.

DOI: 10.5220/0013666500003873

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Medical Science and Health (ICOMESH 2023), pages 94-100

ISBN: 978-989-758-740-5

treatment, and distribution of healthcare resources

(Campbell & Shokrani, 2016).

Traditional medicinal plants have been

recognized and utilized for the treatment and

management of diabetes mellitus (Gaonkar &

Hullatti, 2020). For thousands of years, herbs such as

fenugreek and rhubarb have been used in various

traditional medical systems to treat diabetes mellitus

(Alsanad et al., 2018; Shad & Haghighi, 2018). These

medicinal plants contain active components that have

shown potential in regulating blood glucose levels

and gene expression related to diabetes (Salehi et al.,

2019). Additionally, the use of herbal remedies for

diabetes mellitus is prevalent among patients, who

often turn to these alternatives due to the challenges

of adhering to conventional therapeutic regimens

(Mekuria et al., 2018). Medicinal plants provide a

hopeful opportunity for the creation of novel orally

effective substances for treating diabetes mellitus

(Farzaei et al., 2017; Akram, 2013).

2 METHODS

2.1 Data Collection

Scopus, being the preeminent and extensive scientific

database presently accessible, provides a diverse

range of peer-reviewed journal articles, thereby

ensuring the reliability and caliber of the obtained

literature. The selection of Scopus as the electronic

database for this research was made. Data on virtual

reality and augmented reality in anatomy education

were searched by topic using the search strategy: TS

= (("herbal medicine" OR "traditional medicine" OR

"herbal therapy" OR "herb therapy" AND "diabetes

mellitus" OR dm OR diabetes OR diabetic)).

A total of 8059 documents have been published

from 1961 to 2023. The scope of the studies is

restricted to the period from 2014 to 2023, including

the last 10 years. These papers were collected to

investigate the worldwide research patterns in herbal

medicine for diabetes mellitus. Following retrieval,

only original publications in their final state,

published in English journals, were selected for

further analysis. There were 3,226 original articles

included. Data used in this study were lastly updated

on November 2, 2023.

2.2 Data Analysis

In order to gain an understanding of research growth

patterns, the most prolific authors, the nation with the

most publications, and the most cited journals are

extracted from the Scopus database via the analyzed

results menu and then downloaded as necessary.

Articles were downloaded in CSV format and then

processed using Vosviewer 1.6.19 (van Eck and

Waltman, 2022) and Bibliometrix (Aria and

Cuccurullo, 2017) to visualize and analyze trends in

the form of bibliometric maps. Vosviewer and

Bibliometrix can make keywords maps based on

shared networks.

3 RESULTS

3.1 Research Developments in the Field

of Herbal Medicine for Diabetes

Mellitus

Figure 1: Trend research of herbal medicine for diabetes

mellitus in the worldwide for 10 years.

There are 3.226 documents in journal published

from 2014-2023 with average annual growt are 2.08

%. The are increasing in scientific publications in the

field of herbal medicine for diabetes mellitus

demonstrates a worldwide rise in the number of

researchers in one decade (2014-2013).The most

significant increases happened in 2018-2019, 27.62

percent and 2019-2020, 24.08 percent.

3.2 The Most Profilic Authors in the

Publication of Herbal Medicine for

Diabetes Mellitus

A total of 13,990 authors were involved in all

articles related to herbal medicine for diabetes

mellitus. The top ten contributors to publications

published in Scopus journals showed in figure 2.

Zengin, G. is the most profilic author on the list,

having published approximately eighteen works.

Thong, X. has authored thirdteen publications,

followed by Eddouks, M., Li, P., and Rafliean-

Kopaeri, M., who have twelve written eight papers.

Global Recent Trends Research of Herbal Medicine for Diabetes Mellitus in a Decade (2014-2023): A Bibliometric Analysis and Scientiﬁc

Mapping

Figure 2: Top Ten Contributing Authors in the area of

herbal medicine for diabetes mellitus research worldwide

3.3 Top Ten Countries of Author Based

on Publication Number

Figure 3: Top Ten Countries in the area of herbal medicine

for diabetes mellitus research worldwide

The country with the most publications is China with

574 documents (17.79 percent), second place is India

with 570 documents (17.66 percent) and third is Iran

with 246 documents (7.62 percent).

3.4 The Core Journal of Herbal

Medicine for Diabetes Mellitus

Table 1 lists the top ten peer-reviewed journals that

have published the most cited articles in the field of

herbal medicine in diabetes mellitus for one decade rs

(2014-2023). The journal with the most cited papers

is Journal of Ethnopharmacology, which has 241

citations. Then, Evidence Based Complementary and

Alternative Medicine contributes to the publication

with 88 citations, and Frontiers in Pharmacology with

publication of 60 citations, making it a leading

scientific publication worldwide.

Table 1: Topten journal by citation in herbal medicine for

diabetes mellitus research.

Source Title Citation

Journal of Ethnopharmacolog

241

Evidence Based Complementary and

Alternative Medicine

Frontiers in Pharmacolog

Molecules 56

BMC Complementary and Alternative

Medicine

Biomedicine and Pharmacotherapy 45

Plos One 38

Research Journal of Pharmacy and

Technolog

BMC Complementary Medicine and

Thera

ies

Heli

on 28

3.5 Topic Area Visualization Using

Vosviewer

In Vosviewer, the default visualization method for

keywords related to herbal medicine in diabetes

mellitus research themes is to tag and display them as

circles. The significance of an item or keyword is

directly proportional to its frequency of occurrence,

resulting in a larger circle as it appears more

frequently. The frequency of repetition impacts the

magnitude of the objects. Unsurprisingly, the

research issue that received the most attention was

diabetes mellitus, as it had the highest frequency of

occurrence. Once the color is allocated to the

elements, each circle is assigned a distinct color

corresponding to its cluster. The result was derived by

analyzing the frequency of author keywords in

bibliographic data using Vosviewerm (van Eck and

Waltman, 2022).

A keyword minimum occurrence number of 10

was defined. Then we got 7555 keywords and merely

150 keywords that satisfied the condition. After

analyzing the outcome, we collected 6 groupings as

study subjects trends virtual reality in the anatomy

education sector denoted by different colors.

The network visualization illustrates six distinct

clusters and their interconnections among the

identified topic areas. Each cluster comprises

multiple keywords that exhibit a strong correlation

within the structure of the map. Each cluster has

distinct high-frequency instances of terms that

indicate the research topic that has been explored in

previous research. There are the top three clusters

ICOMESH 2023 - INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MEDICAL SCIENCE AND HEALTH

Figure 4: Network Visualization of herbal medicine for diabetes mellitus field publication co-occurrence map using

Vosviewer.

with the most frequency of occurrence in the top three

keywords. For example, with the most frequent of

occurrence the first cluster has the most frequent

terms: antioxidant (168), antidiabetic (109), and α-

glucosidase (72). The second cluster has oxidative

stress (120), type 2 diabetes (103), and inflammation

(77) as the most prominent common term. The third

cluster includes the most prominent words, such as

diabetes mellitus (272), streptozotocin (91), and

insulin (34).

3.6 The Most Frequent Keywords of

Herbal Medicine in Diabetes

Mellitus Publication

Keywords are crucial for conducting research on

trends. In addition to serving as a keyword research

trend, it also facilitates the discovery of topics

relevant to researchers and readers in their respective

fields. The meticulous selection of these words will

significantly influence the accessibility of searches

and the ongoing discourse topics. Each monoword or

biword keyword will determine the scope of the

literature search and inquiry.

The predominant keywords in the domain of herbal

medicine for diabetes mellitus are displayed in Figure

4. Based on the data shown in Figure 5, the phrases

that had the highest frequency were diabetes (376

occurrences), diabetes mellitus (273 occurrences),

antioxidant (168 occurrences), herbal medicine (161

occurrences), traditional medicine (147 occurrences),

oxidative stress (120 occurrences), medicinal plants

(116 occurrences), antidiabetic (110 occurrences),

type 2 diabetes (103 occurrences), and streptozotocin

(91 occurrences). Put simply, the prevailing subjects

for publishing in the field of herbal medicine and

diabetes mellitus are diabetes mellitus, antioxidants,

and herbal medicine.

Figure 5: The most used keywords of herbal medicine in diabetes mellitus

Global Recent Trends Research of Herbal Medicine for Diabetes Mellitus in a Decade (2014-2023): A Bibliometric Analysis and Scientiﬁc

Mapping

3.7 Thematic Map Analysis of Herbal

Medicine in Diabetes Mellitus

Publication

Furthermore, this discovery can be utilized to

formulate a captivating concept that can be published

in this domain, specifically pertaining to diabetic

mellitus, antioxidant, and herbal medication. The

Thematic Map study, depicted in Figure 6, provides

evidence to corroborate this finding. The research

topic highlighted in the red circle represents a

thematic trend that holds potential for future

development.

The implementation of the multi-disciplinary

theme is a fascinating concept in this subject. Figure

6 illustrates various potential clusters, such as

diabetes mellitus, anti-oxidant, inflammation and

medicinal herbs. Based on the field or herbal

medicine in diabetes mellitus, various subjects related

to green, blue, pink, and purple colours are suggested

as potential areas for further research.

4 DISCUSSIONS

The management of diabetes mellitus holds

significant relevance, with traditional herbal

medicine being acknowledged for its potential in

addressing this condition. Several scholarly

investigations have underscored the efficacy of

botanical resources in the therapeutic intervention

and control of diabetes (Gaonkar and Hullatti,

2020)(Farzaei et al., 2017).Tran et al. have reported

that these particular botanical species possess

bioactive constituents that have demonstrated

potential efficacy in the management of

diabetes(Tran, Bao and Le, 2020). Nevertheless, it is

imperative to acknowledge and confront the

deceptive endorsement of conventional herbal

remedies as a remedy for diabetes within the

community (Rutebemberwa et al., 2013). According

to (Farzaei et al., 2017), the utilization of

complementary and alternative medicine, such as

herbal medications, has the potential to be beneficial

in the management of diabetes. According to a recent

study conducted by (Putrimarlin et al., 2022), it has

been observed that plants containing flavonoid

components, such as genistein and quercetin, had the

ability to enhance insulin production. Consequently,

these plants hold potential for utilization in the

management and treatment of diabetes. Moreover, the

aqueous extract derived from the seeds of

Tamarindus indica has demonstrated promise in

ameliorating hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia

associated with diabetes, as reported by (Maiti, Das

and Ghosh, 2005). Herbs have been recognized as a

potential adjunct to pharmacological interventions for

managing type 2 diabetes mellitus (Proboningsih et

al., 2020). However, it is crucial to acknowledge that

the efficacy of certain herbs, such as rhubarb, in

regulating hyperglycemia can exhibit variability

(Shad and Haghighi, 2018). In general, the utilization

of traditional medicinal plants shows potential in the

treatment of diabetes mellitus. However, additional

investigation is required to comprehensively

comprehend their underlying mechanisms and

enhance their efficacy (Prabhakar and Doble, 2008;

Mallick et al., 2007).

Figure 6: Thematic map analysis of herbal medicine in diabetes mellitus research

ICOMESH 2023 - INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MEDICAL SCIENCE AND HEALTH

5 CONCLUSIONS

Based on data from a decade (2014-2023) we get

3,226 articles, this study suggests that the growth

development in herbs for DM with the most

significant Scopus index occurred in 2020, which

reached 24.08 percent. The Journal of

Ethnopharmacology is the most international

publications in herbs for DM with 241 documents.

The Journal of Ethnopharmacology is also the most

influential, with 7,223 citations. China is the country

that has the most research papers on herbs for DM

(574 documents), while Zengin, G is the most prolific

writer (18 documents). Herbs for DM field

development map based on co-occurrence is

classified into six clusters, and diabetes mellitus,

antioxidants, herbal medicine are the most

highlighted term throughout the entire network.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are grateful to Universitas Sebelas Maret

for supporting this research. This work was supported

by the Research Group Funding 2023 (grant number

228/UN27.22/PT.01.03/2023).

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