What has been the focus of Rooibos health research? A bibliometric overview

Abstract

Introduction: Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) is a South African herbal tisane that is enjoyed throughout the world for its taste and emerging health benefits. Rooibos possesses a unique composite of phytochemicals known to encompass antioxidant and bioactive properties and has been suggested as an intervention for several disease conditions. The current study aims to provide a comprehensive bibliometric overview of the literature on Rooibos and its proposed health benefits to complement previous review articles. Methods: A bibliometric mapping analysis of the research on Rooibos was carried out, using data from the titles, abstracts, and keywords of articles published in leading journals and other peer-reviewed documents available in the Scopus database from 1962 to 2021 (21 September), and subsequently analysed with the VOSviewer software. Results: The search yielded 635 documents. The numbers of original articles (n = 525) and reviews (n = 51) were in the ratio of 10:1. More than half of the papers have been published since 2015. These publications were mainly published in journals representing the emerging ethnopharmacological potential of this tisane. Discussion/Conclusion: The literature mainly focused on Rooibos bioactive effects against cancer, inflammation, and oxidative stress. Purified Rooibos phytocompounds that were frequently mentioned in the keywords of evaluated publications included aspalathin, quercetin, rutin and the umbrella term "polyphenols". The accumulating research clearly underlines the benefits of Rooibos as both a preventative and complementary therapeutic functional food. This first attempt to visualise the bibliometrics and altmetrics of Rooibos and its health applications is a good starting point for further scientific work.