Unveiling the frontiers of self-assembled chinese herbal medicines nanodrugs in cancer therapy: A comprehensive bibliometric analysis and insights into emerging vesicle-based strategies

Self-assembled Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) nanodrugs are a new paradigm in cancer therapy. This bibliometric analysis aimed to evaluate the research status and development trend of self-assembled CHM nanodrugs in cancer therapy. The records were systematically retrieved from the Web of Science and PubMed databases. Subsequently, 1625 publications were evaluated using VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and Bibliometrix to determine the publication trends, core authors, highly influential journals, and research hotspots. The results indicate that plant-derived vesicles may offer advantages in terms of preparation and represent a high-potential research direction that warrants further exploration. Among CHMs, four agents merit particular attention: curcumin, which is a highly studied hotspot compound, and resveratrol, celastrol, and quercetin, which are comparatively lower-profile yet high-potential candidates. Overall, this analysis identifies nanotechnologies and CHMs with significant promise, summarizes their respective research progress, and provides direction and reference points for future development in this field.