Clerodendranthus Spicatus: A review of its active compounds, mechanisms of action, and clinical studies in urinary diseases

Clerodendranthus spicatus (Thunb.) C.Y.Wu (CS) is a widely studied plant that shows potential in treating urinary diseases. Previous studies have focused on its chemical composition, pharmacological effects, and clinical applications. This review aims to provide a comprehensive summary and evaluation of the existing literature on CS. It also suggests future research directions to increase our understanding of its medicinal value. 129 pieces of literature were selected from several databases, including PubMed, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wan-fang Database, and Google Scholar, and were analyzed. Forty-five active compounds of CS have pharmacological effects such as lowering uric acid, anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, and kidney protection. The potential mechanisms of these effects may be related to inhibiting transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) activation, reducing inflammatory factors such as IL-8, IL-1β, TNF-α, PGE2, IFN-γ, and IL-6 levels, suppressing the activation of NF-κB, JAK/STAT pathway, enhancing the clearance of ROS, MDA DPPH·, and O2 ̇ −, and regulating the expression of apoptosis-related pathways and proteins. This paper also discusses the quality control of CS and its efficacy and safety in treating urinary diseases. The study concludes that CS has a high potential for treating urinary diseases. Future studies should focus on observing the metabolic changes of CS active compounds in vivo and investigating the effects of CS on key signaling pathways. Additionally, more standardized and reasonable clinical studies and safety evaluation experiments should be conducted to obtain more clinical data.