Abstract
Asian herbal medicines have been known for decades, and some have been used to treat atopic dermatitis (AD). This chronic and persistent inflammatory skin condition causes severe morbidity and negatively impacts the quality of life. In numerous trials, traditional Chinese medicines have demonstrated clinical efficacy for AD. However, there has not been a well-documented summary of the wide variety of Asian herbal medicine used in treating AD. We aimed to summarize the Asian herbal medicine being used in AD systematically. An English-language literature search was performed in three electronic medical databases: PubMed, Cochrane Library, and EBSCOhost using keywords (("atopic dermatitis" OR "atopic eczema") AND ("traditional" OR "herbal")) and was limited to references published between January 2015 and December 2022. The literature comprised newborns, infants, children, adolescent, and adults. The review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension to determine the scope of the review criteria. The content and inclusiveness of the search were filtered using MeSH/Emtree terms, keywords, titles, and abstracts. 13 articles (12 RCT and one clinical trial) reported a variety of herbal medicine compounds to treat AD with various efficacy. Most studies reported significant improvement when comparing the herbal medicine with a placebo, but only 1 study reported substantial improvement of SCORAD compared to corticosteroids. Asian herbal medicines have been studied and may be used as an alternative treatment in treating AD with fewer adverse effects. However, its role did not change the position of standard treatment in treating atopic dermatitis.