Fighting drug-resistant tuberculosis with traditional medicine, a global bibliometric review (1980–2025)

TRADITIONAL MEDICINE AND DRUG-RESISTANT TB: A GLOBAL BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW

Abstract

Multidrug-resistant (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) pose a significant threat to global TB control efforts, which have made considerable gains over the past few decades. Although standard chemotherapy remains the primary mode of therapy, the long duration, toxicities and growing resistance to the drugs have led to the search for adjunct therapies. Ancient traditional medicine (TM) systems such as Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Unani, African ethnomedicine and others have previously reported treatments for respiratory ailments that are being explored for their potential benefit in treating resistant TB. This is the first worldwide bibliometric analysis of documents from the last 45 years (1980-2025) on traditional medicine for drug-resistant tuberculosis via PubMed and Scopus databases. 495 documents were bibliometrically analysed using VOSviewer software to identify publication trends, co-authorship, institutional collaboration and co-occurring keywords. The study shows a remarkable increase in publications since 2010, with India, the US and China as the frontrunners. Key journals like the Journal of Ethnopharmacology were found to be pivotal in disseminating research, although cross-country and institutional collaborations are scarce. The study reveals leads in medicinal plants and phytoconstituents showing antimycobacterial and immunomodulatory activities. But there is a need for research into mechanisms of action, standardisation and particularly rigorous clinical trials to establish the safety and efficacy. Traditional medicine holds promise as a supplement in TB control but its adoption into policy and practice needs to be careful and rigorous with evidence-based approaches and global collaboration and rigorous research methods.