Herbal Medicines use in Pregnancy in Northern Cyprus

Objective: To identify the herbal medicinal products used in pregnancy in community pharmacies, the approach of pharmacists in Northern Cyprus and to compare the availability of the most commonly mentioned medicinal plants in accessible databases, in Northern Cyprus.

Design: Questionnaire was designed and administered to 263 community pharmacists in Northern Cyprus and gathered the data on herbal medicinal products they had and recommended to pregnant women. Databases such as ScienceDirect, PubMed, OpenAcces Journals were searched through the Near East University Grand Library’s Online Resources for keywords relating to the ‘herbal medicine’, ‘pregnancy’ ‘pregnant women’, ‘herbal products’. Descriptive statistics was used with IBM® Statistical product and service solutions software platform.

Location/Setting: Northern Cyprus

Outcome Measures: Herbal medicinal products used and recommended in pregnancy by community pharmacists in Northern Cyprus were identified. It has also been determined which of the most used plants in the world are grown in Northern Cyprus.

Results: The most recommended herbal pharmaceutical forms were herbal lozenges (n = 76, 31%), then herbal form of teas (n = 60, 24%), herbal oils (n = 57, 23%), herbal capsules (n = 36, 14%), other pharmaceutical forms (n=20, 8%). Within the limitation of our literature search, totally 650 medicinal plants (single or formula) used in pregnancy were determined. Out of these 74 were mostly used worldwide, and it was discovered that 56 species out of these plants are grown or cultivated; 18 of the compiled species were imported species some of the genera have species growing naturally growing in Cyprus.

Conclusion: Pregnant women in Cyprus also follow their counterparts in other countries in developing interest in herbal medicines. The number of herbal medicines in the pharmacies owned by Turkish Cypriots is small. Interestingly, the result of this study showed that the pharmacists that were mainly Turkish Cypriots were found not to be selling herbal medicinal products to pregnant women without doctor’s prescriptions. This study recommends that the herbal medicines use in pregnancy should be the ones that have undergone in-depth evidence-based scientific researches with clinically proven efficacy that are known not only to the healthcare professionals such as medical doctors, midwives but also the pharmacists and the general public.