Do Herbal Medicines Promote Weight loss? (https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.13973)

Abstract

As the Complementary Medicines industry grows in popularity, there is an assortment of herbal medicines available which purport to facilitate weight loss among people who are overweight but the strength of the underlying evidence is variable. Few, if any, herbal medicines, have been evaluated as anti-obesity agents in randomised controlled trials (RCTs), and such trials are often under-powered, of short duration and limited in their design. Now, a research group from Sydney (Maunder et al) has undertaken a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature, which included 54 placebo-controlled trials of various herbal medicines. On the basis that 2.5 kg of weight loss is a clinically-significant effect, the authors found that herbal products were generally safe and well tolerated but concluded that there is insufficient evidence to recommend any of the herbal medicines for weight loss.