Effect of Ginger and Chamomile capsules on nausea and vomiting in pregnancy

Nausea and vomiting are the most frequent complications in the first trimester of pregnancy. Herbal medicine is among the traditional effective treatments. Ginger and Chamomile are hypothesized to be useful in decreasing the signs. This study was done to determine the effect of Ginger and Chamomile capsules on nausea and vomiting in pregnancy.

This triple-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial was carried out on 105 pregnant women in 6-16 weeks of gestational age with a mild to moderate nausea and vomiting, whome referred to the prenatal care clinic in Dezyani hospital and health centers, Gorgan, Northern Iran during 2009-10. Rhodes index questionnaire had been given to all participants to be completed before bed-time for two weeks. In the first week no intervention was done and prescribing the capsules was started the following week. Subjects randomly divided into 3 groups: In group 1, ginger capsules were consumped twice a day for one week, in group 2; twice daily chamomile capsule and in placebo group, glucose capsule was prescribed. Scores were calculated and all data were entered into the SPSS-16 software, analysis was done using variance analysis, Will-Cockson, paired T and Fisher-exact tests.

The mean of Rhodes index before intervention in plasbo, Ginger and Chamomile groups were 12.71±5.88, 10.42±0.76 and 11.19±5.51, respectively. Also, the mean of Rhodes index after intervention in plasbo, Ginger and Chamomile groups were 11.47±6.43, 7.28±3.74 and 5.73±4.32, respectively (P<0.05). Bonferroni test indicated that there is no difference about scor chang (after and before) between Ginger and Chamomile and Ginger and plasbo, but this difference was significant between Chamomile and plasbo group (P<0.05).

This study showed that Chamomile capsule was more effective on nausea and vomiting during pregnancy compared to Ginger.