Medicinal plants – prophylactic and therapeutic options for gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases in calves and piglets? A systematic review

Ayrle, Hannah; Mevissen, Meike; Kaske, Martin; Nathues, Heiko; Gruetzner, Niels; Melzig, Matthias; Walkenhorst, Michael

The chosen plant species were included in the following step. A bibliographic web-based search was conducted based on the recommendations of the PRISMA statement [39, 40] and AMSTAR measurement tool [41] . An introduction in scientific bibliographic literature searches and continuous support was provided by a professional librarian. The bibliographic sources used included PubMed [49] and Web of Science [50] . Both were consulted in the time between 2015-02-16 and 2015-02-19 by one person. The search terms consisted of the Latin name, the common trivial name in English and the pharmaceutical denomination in Latin (e.g. "Foeniculum vulgare" OR "fennel" OR "foeniculi fructus"). In the PubMed keyword search, the results were refined with the subjects 'complementary [22, 27, 29] medicine' , 'dietary supplements' , 'systematic review' , 'toxicology' and 'veterinary science'. In the PubMed search with MeshTerms, only the Latin name of the plant was used and the subheadings 'adverse effects' , 'analysis' , 'drug effects' , 'microbiology' , 'pharmacology' , 'therapeutic use' , 'therapy' and 'toxicity'. In the Web of Science database, the search was conducted in the research domain 'science technology' and the results were refined with the research areas 'pharmacology' , 'infectious diseases' , 'toxicology' , 'veterinary sciences' , 'microbiology' , 'gastroenterology' , 'integrative complementary medicine' , 'general internal medicine' , 'respiratory system' and 'virology'. Overall, only peer-reviewed articles written in English or German language and published between 1994 and 2014 were considered for further evaluation to ensure contemporary scientific quality and timeliness of the review. The references found were saved in an EndNote X7 data base [51] and the information on each plant was stored in a separate folder in this database. Duplicates were removed for each plant species.