Effectiveness of medicinal plants on the improvement of symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOs): A systematic review study

Introduction : PCOs are one of the most common endocrine disorders in women of reproductive age and are seen in 15% to 10% of women. The clinical signs of thissyndrome included hirsutism, hyperandrogenism, acne, decreased endometrial thickness, menstrual disorders and obesity. In recent years, many studies have beenconducted on the use of herbal remedies in the treatment of polycystic ovary syndrome. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of medicinalplants on the improvement of symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome Methods: The databases of PubMed, Medline, Cochran library, Emro, WHO, Iranmedex, Iran.doc, Science Direct, SID databases were used to access the articles. In order to gather the required information, articles that contained one of the keywords in the text such as medicinal plants, polycystic ovary syndrome, herb, cinnamon, menstrual irregularity alone or with other plant names. All studies were included from 2000 to 2019. Finally, the 15 articles that were most were included. Result: Finally, the evaluation of articles demonstrated that mint tea, date palm, asparagus, flaxseed oil, fennel essential oil, black grape seed extract, and cinnamon were effective in improving symptoms but licorice and caligonum extract had not improved the symptoms of PCOs. Conclusion: Medicinal herbs that reduce the symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome can be used as supplements to treatment of this syndrome.

Keywords:

Polycystic ovary syndrome , Medicinal plant , Plant