REVIEW published: 21 August 2018 doi: 10.3389/fphar.2018.00557 Berberine: Botanical Occurrence, Traditional Uses, Extraction Methods, and Relevance in Cardiovascular, Metabolic, Hepatic, and Renal Disorders Maria A. Neag 1, Andrei Mocan 2*, Javier Echeverría 3, Raluca M. Pop 1, Corina I. Bocsan 1, Gianina Cri¸san 2 and Anca D. Buzoianu 1 1 Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Clinical Pharmacology, “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2 Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 3 Department of Environmental Sciences, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile Edited by: Berberine-containing plants have been traditionally used in different parts of the world for Anna Karolina Kiss, the treatment of inflammatory disorders, skin diseases, wound healing, reducing fevers, Medical University of Warsaw, Poland affections of eyes, treatment of tumors, digestive and respiratory diseases, and microbial Reviewed by: Pinarosa Avato, pathologies. The physico-chemical properties of berberine contribute to the high diversity Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo of extraction and detection methods. Considering its particularities this review describes Moro, Italy various methods mentioned in the literature so far with reference to the most important Sylwia Zielinska, Wroclaw Medical University, Poland factors influencing berberine extraction. Further, the common separation and detection *Correspondence: methods like thin layer chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography, and Andrei Mocan mass spectrometry are discussed in order to give a complex overview of the existing
[email protected] methods. Additionally, many clinical and experimental studies suggest that berberine Specialty section: has several pharmacological properties, such as immunomodulatory, antioxidative, This article was submitted to cardioprotective, hepatoprotective, and renoprotective effects.