The Effects of Evening Primerose on Clinical Obstetrics of Iran: A Review Study

Nowadays, medicinal plants are considered by women, especially in the fertility and pregnancy age, in ways that the trail of herbal medicine is observed in about half of primigravida women. In addition to health benefits, herbal drugs can also have toxic effects. Therefore, performing clinical studies on herbal extracts is beneficial. This review study aimed to overview the effects of Evening Primrose on clinical obstetrics in Iran.

In this review study, the quality of articles was assessed by the modified Jadad scale. From 90 articles obtained from search engines in the period of 1991-2018, 15 full articles that achieved a score of ≥3 were entered into the study, and their results were categorized in terms of randomization, blinding, and different biases.

In this study, some of the positive effects of Evening Primrose were improving the lipid profile of gestational diabetes, reducing the hormonal complications of polycystic ovary syndrome, improving premenstrual syndrome, accelerating the transition from postpartum grief, and replacing HRT in menopausal symptoms. However, mastalgia had no particular superiority to previous therapies. Regarding Bishop Score in the post-term period, further investments are required to more evaluate its local impact.

In Iran, most studies on Evening Primrose are related to the premenstrual syndrome in women, the results of all of which have confirmed the positive effect of this plant on the decrease of PMS symptoms. It seems that Evening Primrose can be suggested to reduce PMS symptoms in women.