The Effect of Herbal Medicine Supplementation on Clinical and Para-clinical Outcomes in Women With PCOS: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Objectives: The aim of this study is to assess the impact of Cinnamomum verum, Mentha spicata, Zingiberene officinal on polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) treatment. Materials and Methods: MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, ProQuest, Clinicaltrial.gov, and for Persian articles SID, Magiran, Irandoc, and Iranmedex were searched without any time limitation. Results: Thirteen randomized controlled trials (RCTs) consisting 668 women were entered in the meta-analysis. Significant differences in fasting blood sugar (FBS; weighted mean difference (WMD)=-3.69 mg/dL, 95% CI: -6.67 to -0.7, P=0.02; 241 participants), fasting insulin (WMD=-4.53 µIU/mL, 95% CI: -6.45 to -2.61, P<0.001;183 participants), triglyceride (TG; WMD=-17.97 mg/ dL, 95% CI: -30.51 to -5.43, P=0.005;183 participants), total cholesterol (TC; WMD=-14.60 mg/dL, 95% CI: -22.93 to -6.26, P=0.0006; 183 participants), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL; WMD=-16.58 mg/dL, 95% CI -23.91 to -9.24, P<0.001; 183 participants), malondialdehyde (MDA; WMD=-0.25 nmol/ml, 95% CI -0.41 to -0.09, P<0.002;124 participants), total testosterone (TT; WMD=-0.18 ng/mL, 95% CI -0.27 to -0.09, P<0.001; 116 participants), free testosterone (FT; WMD=-5.47 pg/mL, 95% CI -8.34 to -2.61, P=0.0002;78 participants) were obtained by using cinnamon alone and herbal mixture containing cinnamon in comparison to control. Conclusions: This meta-analysis showed that cinnamon alone and herbal mixture containing cinnamon improve level of FBS, fasting insulin, TG, TC, LDL, MDA, TT, and FT serum level.