The Effect of Chamomile on Pain and Menstrual Bleeding in Primary Dysmenorrhea: A Systematic Review

Background: Primary dysmenorrhea is characterized by pain during menstruation without anypelvic pathology. It is a common problem among females in their reproductive age which is caused byincreased production of prostaglandin in the endometrium as one of leading causes. Chamomile extractceases the production of prostaglandins and leukotrienes.The aim of this study was tosystematicallyreview the clinical trials to determine the effect of Chamomile on pain and menstural bleeding inprimary dysmenorrhea.Methods: Search process to find relevant articles was conducted on electronic Iranian (MagIran,SID) and international databases (Google Scholar, Science Direct, PubMed, ProQuest, Cochranelibrary,Scopus, Web of Science and EBSCO),using English keywords and Persian equivalents sucha “Dysmenorrhea”, “Pain”, “Menstrual bleeding” and “Chamomil” without a time limit until March2020. Irrelevant, duplicate, descriptive, or qualitative studies were excluded. To evaluate the quality ofarticles, we used the Cochran’s Risk of Bias tool.Results: Among124 articles found in the initial search, finally 7 clinical trials (with a sample size of1033) were systematically examined. Two out of 7 studies examined the effect of Chamomile on thepain of primary dysmenorrhea, 2 studies on the effect of Chamomile on menstrual bleeding volume,and 3 on the effect of Chamomileon pain and menstural bleeding in primary dysmenorrhea.Conclusion: Based on results of the most reviewed studies, Chamomile can be considered as aneffective treatment for primary dysmenorrhea and reducing menstrual bleeding.