New approaches to food preservation by reducing the use of synthetic compounds have highlighted active plant compounds, drawing the attention of several researchers around the world, mainly to investigate the application of these compounds in food products more susceptible to deterioration, such as seafood and freshwater fish. The objective of this article was to carry out a systematic review and bibliometric analysis to investigate trends and patterns in the literature for the topic addressed and quantitative data. The review also presents a set of relevant data on procurement, application, and trends in the investigation of bioactive compounds on shelf life extension in fish products. The review allowed us to assess that the application of active plant compounds in fish products has been more evidenced in studies from 2015. The analysis also revealed that although some species of plants and fish are recurrent in the studies, the number of coauthorships is low, demonstrating a lack of affinity between the authors of the topic. The review showed that different methods of extraction and application of plant bioactive compounds demonstrated significant effects in reducing lipid oxidation and prolonging the shelf life of fish products. However, more detailed investigations of the composition of active compounds can corroborate more promising data regarding commercial viability.