Safety classification of herbal medicines used among pregnant women in Asian countries: a systematic review

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Research Article

Dongwoon Han¹  Mansoor Ahmed¹  Soojeung Choi¹  Jung Hye Hwang² 

[1] Department of Global Health and Development & Department of Preventive Medicine, Hanyang University, College of Medicine, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, 04763, Seoul, South Korea;Institute of Health Services Management, Seoul, South Korea;Department of Global Health and Development & Department of Preventive Medicine, Hanyang University, College of Medicine, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, 04763, Seoul, South Korea;Institute of Health Services Management, Seoul, South Korea;Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea;

关键词: Pregnancy;    Herbal medicines;    Adverse effects;    Safety;    Asian countries;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12906-017-1995-6

 received in 2017-04-20, accepted in 2017-11-07,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundHigh prevalence of herbal medicines used in pregnancy and the lack of information on their safety is a public concern. Despite this, no significant research has been done regarding potential adverse effects of using herbal medicines during pregnancy, especially among developing Asian countries.MethodsCross-sectional studies were searched up to year 2016 on PubMed/Medline and EMBASE, the data were extracted and quality of studies was assessed using the quality appraisal tool. The findings are reported in accordance to the PRISMA checklist (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses). Classification on safety of identified herbal medicines was done based on current scientific literature.ResultsThis study included eight cross-sectional studies (2729 participants) from seven different Asian countries, of which 1283 (47.01%) women used one or more herbal medicines during pregnancy. Peppermint (22.8%), aniseed (14.7%), olibanum (12.9%), flixweed seed (12.2%) and ginger (11.5%) were the most frequently used herbal medicines. Out of the 33 identified herbal medicines, 13 were classified as safe to use, five as use with caution, eight were potentially harmful to use in pregnancy and information on seven herbal medicines was not available in the current literature.ConclusionsSeveral herbal medicines identified in this review were classified to be potentially harmful or the information regarding safety in pregnancy was missing. It is recommended that contraindicated herbal medicines should be avoided and other herbals should be taken under supervision of a qualified health care practitioner. The classification regarding safety of herbal medicines in pregnancy can be utilized to create awareness on prevention of adverse effects.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017