The Effect of Salvia Officinalis on Hot Flashes in Postmenopausal Women: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The experience of hot flashes during menopause has a negative effect on quality oflife and can cause disturbance in the workplace and disrupt daily activities. Phytoestrogens in Salviaofficinalis reduce menopause symptoms due to their anti-dopaminergic effects. This study wasconducted to systematically review and summarize the results of clinical trials on the effect of Salviaofficinalis on hot flashes in postmenopausal women.

In this systematic review, databases including Pubmed, Web of Science, Cochrane library,Scopus, SID, and Magiran were searched using keywords such as menopause, hot flashes, Salviaofficinalis, and herbal medicines; all possible combinations of these words were used with the Booleanoperators of “OR” and “AND”. To evaluate the quality of articles, we used Cochrane’s Risk of biastools.

After eliminating the duplicates, a total of 148 articles were found. Following the exclusion ofirrelevant articles, 4 studies with number of 310 people were examined. Among them, 3 out of 4 studiesexamined the effect of Salvia officinalis on the frequency of hot flashes, 3 out of 4 studies examinedthe severity of hot flashes, and only 1 out of 4 studies examined the effect of Salvia officinalis on theduration of hot flashes. All 4 reviewed studies indicated that the use of Salvia officinalis reduced thefrequency and severity of hot flashes in postmenopausal women. Meta-analysis results showed that theeffect of Salvia Officinalis on the frequency [ES=-1.12 (%95 CI:-2.37; 0.14), I2=71%] of hot flashes inpostmenopausal women was significant compared to placebo, but severity [ES=-2.05 (%95 CI:-6.53;2.43), I2=70%] was not significant.

Salvia officinalis can be used to reduce the frequency of menopausal hot flashes. Expansiveuse of this plant can be suggested in case it is confirmed in further investigations.