This e-Seminar explores the role of medicinal plant research in advancing women’s health through evidence-based insights and emerging therapies. With several women-specific health conditions, facing unmet needs in care, management and/or treatment, evidence-based phytotherapies could provide a promising approach. In this e-Seminar, we will explore scientific advances, therapeutic potential, and emerging innovations that support the sustainable improvements in women’s well-being and healthcare.
Topics and Speakers
Antimicrobial Science, and She-Health: Targeting Urinary and Vaginal Pathogens with Essential Oils
Prof Sandy Van Vuuren (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa)
Rising antimicrobial resistance patterns and microbiota disruption in urinary and vaginal infections necessitate alternative therapeutic strategies for women’s health. This presentation will uncover the antimicrobial, antibiofilm, toxicity, and microbiota-sparing effects of essential oils and their combinations against urogenital pathogens. Selected oils demonstrated broad-spectrum activity, biofilm inhibition, and favourable safety profiles, with certain combinations outperforming individual oils. These findings support the potential of essential oils, alone or combined with antibiotics, as promising candidates for microbiota-preserving interventions in women’s urogenital health.
One step after the other: Bryophyllum pinnatum in preterm birth and gynaecological ailments
Prof Dr Ana Paula Simões-Wüst (University Hospital of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland)
The tropical succulent plant Bryophyllum pinnatum is used for a wide range of indications in ethnomedicine. Noteworthy constituents include rather ubiquitous flavonoids as well as bufadienolides, a class of compounds more characteristic of Bryophyllum spp. In Europe, preparations of this medicinal herb were introduced in the treatment of preterm labour as early as the 1970s. More recently, B. pinnatum has also been used to treat overactive bladder and dysmenorrhoea. Several clinical projects have demonstrated good effectiveness and very good tolerability. Research into the mode of action of B. pinnatum in preterm labour has shown that leaf press juice reduces the intensity of contractions in human myometrial biopsies, with a bufadienolide-enriched fraction exerting a particularly strong effect. In vitro studies with human myometrial cells have revealed that B. pinnatum constituents inhibit oxytocin-induced calcium signalling and pro-inflammatory pathways. Such effects are also promising for the treatment of overactive bladder and dysmenorrhoea.
Co-Chairs
Dr Banaz Jalil, University College London, United Kingdom
Prof Lyndy J. McGaw, University of Pretoria, South Africa
This seminar will take place on the 20th of February 2026, at 3.00 PM (CET).
