Abstract
The use of herbal medicines has grown considerably in recent years, due to the erroneous thought that products of plant origin are harmless, and therefore do not cause adverse effects or have drug interactions. The use of these drugs with oral contraceptives can bring risks to patients. The potential negative clinical effects that can be caused by these drug interactions must be emphasized to prevent risks and ensure the effectiveness of this contraceptive method that is one of the most used by women seeking to prevent pregnancy. The users of herbal medicines usually believe that herbal medicine is a therapeutic alternative free of adverse effects and/or incapable of causing drug interactions, but herbal medicines are composed of several chemical compounds, which, in turn, may be responsible for antagonistic and/or synergistic effects with other drugs. The main interactions that can occur with contraceptives are with popularly used herbal medicines such as licorice, alfalfa, cannabis, cimicifuga, St. John's wort, ginseng, kava-kava, saw palmetto, sene, and soy. The herbal medicines have several chemical compounds, among which we highlight the secondary metabolites, responsible for the pharmacological actions and mechanism of action of drug interactions, which are often similar in plants that have in their composition the same metabolites, as in the case of saponins and isoflavones that reduce the speed of biotransformation of oral contraceptives.
Highlights
The use of herbal medicines has grown considerably in recent years, due to the erroneous thought that products of plant origin do not cause harm, the famous: "what is natural is not harmful", they do not cause adverse effects or have drug interactions, but the herbal medicines are composed of several chemical compounds, which in turn may be responsible for antagonistic and/or synergistic effects with other drugs (Brazil, 2004, 2006)
Interactions can occur with plants used for the preparation of teas, home-made syrups, and herbal medicines
The use of herbal medicines with oral contraceptives can bring risks to patients, the potential negative clinical effects that can be caused by these drug interactions should be emphasized to prevent risks and ensure the effectiveness of this contraceptive method that is one of the most used by women seeking to prevent pregnancy (Silva & Rocha, 2013)
Summary
The use of herbal medicines has grown considerably in recent years, due to the erroneous thought that products of plant origin do not cause harm, the famous: "what is natural is not harmful", they do not cause adverse effects or have drug interactions, but the herbal medicines are composed of several chemical compounds, which in turn may be responsible for antagonistic and/or synergistic effects with other drugs (Brazil, 2004, 2006). Interactions can occur with plants used for the preparation of teas, home-made syrups, and herbal medicines These plants are generally used for self-care, leading to the habit of patients not informing health professionals about their use. This is an integrative literature review through scientific studies on oral hormonal contraceptives and their main drug interactions with herbal medicines and medicinal plants, through their concomitant use, carried out in the SciELO (ScientificElectronic Library onLine) and Google Academic databases by articles, theses, dissertations, the following key words were employed: oral contraceptives, herbal medicines, mechanism of action, drug interactions. The aim was to understand the main drug interactions between herbal medicines and oral hormonal contraceptives, highlighting the awareness of the correct and rational use and the importance of the knowledge of these interactions to prevent risks related to the safety and/or efficacy profiles of this therapeutic class
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