Background: Herbal medicine has been adopted in Ethiopia since a long time ago. The compounds found in plants contain an abundant source of active compounds that can treat many complications. Screening of promising drug from plant source is vital to control such viral infections. This review is aimed to provide an updated list of plants used to treat hepatitis over the past 15 years in Ethiopia.

Method: Systematic comprehensive searching was conducted using databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Scopus) between September 01 and October 15, 2022 using common search terms. Original articles conducted in Ethiopia, published in English language between January 01/2007 and December 31/2021, and reported hepatitis as a disease treated by plants were included. Plants which are out of floral list of Ethiopian and Eritrea were excluded. Data were extracted from text and table using a standardized data extraction form adapted from JBI data extraction format. The quality of each original study was assessed using quality assessment tool adapted from JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist.

Results: The database search produced a total of 317 articles. After adjustment for duplicates and screening, 15 articles met the inclusion criteria and included in the final review. Of the 24 plants identified, 35.7% were herbs and the common plant parts used were leaf and root (35.7% each). Combined use of leaf and root comprised 10.7%. None of them were confirmed scientifically for safety and efficacy. Family Apocynaceae, Asteraceae, Euphorbiaceae, and Cucurbitaceae had relatively highest number of plant species. The majority of the prepared remedies were given orally (89.3%).

Conclusion: Numerous plants have been utilized to treat hepatitis. Evidence obtained from this review could serve as a guide to discover novel drugs acting against hepatitis. Therefore, it is desirable for researchers to properly identify, document, conserve, and conduct safety and efficacy studies.