Table 1.

Herbal medicine and natural products that exert an effect on autophagy.

Herb name/active components	Targeted pathways	Reference
Ginsenoside Rb2	Activate AMPK and SIRT1 in db/db mice, HepG2 cells, and primary mouse hepatocytes	Huang et al., 2017
Resveratrol	Up-regulate SIRT1 and autophagy markers LC3-II, Beclin 1, and P62 in diet induced NAFLD animals	Ji et al., 2015; Zhang et al., 2015a; Ding et al., 2017
Akebia saponin D	Increase expression of LC3-II and decrease P62 accumulation in ob/ob mice and primary rat hepatocytes	Gong et al., 2016
Bergamot polyphenol fraction	Increase LC3 and Beclin 1 and reduce SQSTM1/p62 in diet induced NAFLD rats	Parafati et al., 2015
Capsaicin	Activate TRPV1 in HepG2 cells	Li et al., 2013
Glycycoumarin	Block mitochondrial activation in palmitate stressed cells and NASH animals	Zhang E. et al., 2016
Lycium barbarum polysaccharides	Activate Atg5 and LC3-II and down-regulate p-mTOR and p62 in NASH animals	Xiao et al., 2014
S-allylmercaptocysteine	Suppressed LKB1/AMPK and PI3K/Akt pathways in NAFLD rats	Xiao et al., 2013b
Schisandrin B	Inhibit PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway in AML-12 and RAW 264.7 cells	Zhang et al., 2015b
Dioscin	Decrease p-mTOR/mTOR in NASH animals	Xu et al., 2017