Mechanism of Natural Drugs on Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease in the world. Its pathogenesis is closely related to insulin resistance, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and hyperlipidemia. Due to the complex pathogenesis, there are no specific medications for treating NAFLD. The most effective way to treat NAFLD is to lose weight through diet intervention and exercise, but a large number of in vitro and in vivo experiments have confirmed that a variety of natural drugs can interfere with NAFLD through many mechanisms, and the curative effect is remarkable. This paper reviews the action mechanism of crude extracts of medicinal plants (Polygonum multiflorum, Artemisia annua leaves, and Artemisia annua leaves) and natural products such as berberine (BBR), curcumin, betulinic acid (BA), ginsenoside Rg1 (G-rg1), and silybin on NAFLD, which aims to provide useful information for further research and development of new drugs to improve the cure rate of non-alcoholic fatty liver.