Medicinal Plants with Abortifacient or Emmenagogue Activity: A Narrative Review Based on Traditional Persian Medicine

Introduction: Traditional Persian medicine (TPM) has a rich background and has introduced various plants with abortive or emmenagogue activity since ancient times. However, many of them are unknown in modern medicine, and a few trials have been conducted describing their efficacy and safety. These plants may be helpful for the management of incomplete abortion, with potentially lower side effects than chemical agents. Objectives: This review introduced these plants and their potential efficiency to link traditional and modern medicine and suggested further studies. Methods: The search strategy for citations in this narrative review was performed in two steps. At first, medicinal plants used as abortifacient or emmenagogue to manage incomplete abortions or retained products of conception were searched and extracted in the most famous TPM literature, including Al-Qanun Fi at-Tibb, Tuhfat-al-Momenin, and Makhzan-ul-advia. The next step was searching electronic databases including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar with the same keywords and herbal plants between 1970 and 2021. The overlapped plants between the manual and electronic search were found and briefly described. Results: In TPM literature, 88 plants with abortifacient activity were found, of which 47 were used to manage incomplete abortions or retained products of conception. Also, in the electronic database search, 14 plants were found to have abortifacient or emmenagogue activity. Among them, six plants, including Sesamum indicum L. (Sesame), Commiphora myrrha (myrrh), Lawsonia inermis L. (Henna), Opopanax chironium L. (Jooshir), Plumbago rosea (Shitraj or Stumbag), and Juniperus sabina (Abhal), overlapped with the manual search results. The abortifacient or emmenagogue activity and properties of all these 14 plants were described. Conclusions: The properties of many traditional plants with abortifacient activity are unknown in modern medicine; however, they should not be used in pregnant women. Nonetheless, they may have the power to be entered into modern medicine. Identifying their pharmacology and action mechanisms may be helpful to introduce them as a potential alternative to chemical agents in the management of induced or incomplete abortion with possibly lower side effects.