The state of astragaloside IV research: A bibliometric and visualized analysis

Background

Astragaloside IV has emerged as a pharmaceutical monomer with great medical applications and potential. Astragaloside IV has many effects such as improving myocardial ischemia, cerebral ischemia–reperfusion injury, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antiviral, promoting lymphocyte proliferation, and antitumor effects. However, there are few bibliometric studies on astragaloside IV.

Objectives

We aim to visualize the hotspots and trends in astragaloside IV research through bibliometric analysis to further understand the future development of basic and clinical research.

Methods The articles and reviews on astragaloside IV were screened from the Web of Science Core Collection, and knowledge maps were generated using CiteSpace software. Bibliometric analysis was performed on 971 articles published from 1998 to 2022.

Results

The number of articles on astragaloside IV increased yearly. These publications came from 42 countries/regions, with China being the largest. The primary research institutions were Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Journal of Ethnopharmacology was the most studied journal and co-cited journal. A total of 473 authors were included, among which Hongxin Wang had the highest number of publications and Zhang Wd had the highest total citation frequency. After analysis, the most common keywords are astragaloside IV, expression, and oxidative stress. Cardiovascular disease, cerebral ischemia, cancer, and kidney disease are current and developing research fields.

Conclusion

This study used bibliometrics and visualization methods to analyze the research hotspots and trends of astragaloside IV. Astragaloside IV on ischemia–reperfusion injury, cancer, and tumor may become the focus of future research.