Phytotherapy in the treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH): between evidence and empiricism

The treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) has been recently approved by different international guidelines like AUA, EAU, NICE, WHO consultation, etc, and drugs as the alpha-blockers and the 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors are widely indicated for this disease.Moreover, little space is given to the anti-cholinergics and recently to the phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors.In this field of application, the phytotherapics, in particularSerenoa repens, are less or not recommended, because they are not supported by adequate scientific evidence.However, the use of these molecules is widely diffuse all over the world, achieving the first choice of treatment in some Nations such as the Asians.