International Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Open Access

Fenugreek Calling us Into Further Attention and Focusing: A Short Commentary

Mansour M Aldhilan^* and Mohamed E Abdel-Wanis ^*Correspondence: Mansour M Aldhilan, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Al Rass General Hospital, Ministry of Health, Qassim, Saudi Arabia, Email:

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About the Study

Fenugreek seed extracts seem to offer potential physiological and pharmacological advantages in both human and animal models. The purpose of the following short discussion is to draw attention to the possible significance of fenugreek's physiological and pharmacological properties. In regards to the recent publication by Aldhilan et al., [1] entitled "The Healing Callus- Promoting Effect of Fenugreek in a Humerus Shaft Fracture: A Case Report” published in Cureus. Fenugreek has been known for a long time in different areas. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, after any fracture fixation surgery, the patients will ask us about fenugreek. As we did not have enough evidence of that, we always remained neutral and told them we didn’t have enough information about it. Anyway, it is widely known in many Asian and Arabic countries that fenugreek helps in fracture healing, reduces blood glucose, increases sexual desire, and has many other health benefits. In African areas, they use fenugreek for postpartum women to enhance lactation. In other areas, they use fenugreek as a topical agent to reduce inflammation. Although fenugreek is considered an herb, we usually don’t encounter side effects in our patients except for the obvious odor of sweet, which is known and unique to fenugreek. That doesn’t mean it’s totally safe, but we need more research into this matter to confirm the safe level of dosage.

Bone fracture healing depends on many factors, not just one. The most important are fracture alignments, blood supply, and nutritional factors. That mean fenugreek is not a magical treatment; rather, it might be supportive for fracture healing.

Some doctors in Saudi Arabia feel happy when patients present for follow-up appointments after fracture fixation with the unique, known, and strong odor of Fenugreek.

Some articles mentioned Fenugreek's benefits in many different aspects. A meta-analysis was conducted about the effect of fenugreek on muscle performance by Albaker WI [2]. They mentioned in the introduction that numerous systematic evaluations and empirical evidence have shown that fenugreek can be protective as well as therapeutic, including anticarcinogenic fenugreek. They mentioned doses from different studies, which are 300-900 mg/day, and concluded the study with the conclusion that fenugreek enhanced muscular strength and endurance, decreased body fat, increased lean body mass, and sped up the rate of glycogen resynthesize during the recovery phase after exercise.

After the phase of reviewing fenugreek published articles, a discussion was made and introduced to an orthopedic professor, who was not aware of fenugreek. He told us we wrote about fenugreek as its magical plant. After showing him some evidence, he mentioned that he needed to start taking fenugreek.

I would like to suggest that future studies verify the findings published in the recent case report. It would be great to conduct higher-level evidence into these matters, including a well-planned randomized controlled trial after careful determination of safe dose and frequency, adequate patient education about possible side effects, lab investigations, serial radiographies, and many other issues.

I believe that a randomized controlled trial is easier to do in other areas where fenugreek is not generally known. As in Saudi Arabia, it’s difficult to convince the patient not to take fenugreek after his fracture fixation to see the result of the study because of general knowledge that fenugreek has some fracture benefits.

Ethical Approval

Not Applicable.

Funding Source

None.

Author Contribution

The author read and approved the final version of the Shot Commentary.

Conflicts of Interest

None.

Guarantor

Mansour Aldhilan.

Research Registration Unique Identifying Number (Uin)

Not applicable

References

1. Aldhilan MM, Abdel-Wanis ME. The Healing callus-promoting effect of fenugreek in a humerus shaft fracture: A case report. Cureus. 2023;15(12):e50519.

   [Crossref] [Google Scholar] [PubMed]

2. Albaker WI. Fenugreek and its effects on muscle performance: A systematic review. J Pers Med. 2023;13(3):427.

   [Crossref] [Google Scholar] [PubMed]