• Comparison of the effectiveness of ginger and chamomile in the severity of nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing chemotherapy; systematic review
  • Hamta Raei,1,* Nastaran Rafiei,2 Hesam Soufbaf sarjami,3
    1. Department of nutrition, school of public health,international campus of shahid sadoughi university of medical science, Yazd, Iran.
    2. MSc in Medical Surgical Nursing, Clinical Research Development Unit, Ramsar Imam Sajjad (AS) Hospital, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Ramsar, Iran
    3. Medical Student, Student Research Committee, School of Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran


  • Introduction: Nausea and vomiting is the most common and annoying complication of chemotherapy, and with complications such as dehydration, water and electricity disorders, malnutrition and lack of patient tolerance, it can lead to delays in chemotherapy courses and, as a result, reduce the quality of life of patients. In order to control nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing chemotherapy, various medicinal and supportive measures are performed. The present systematic review was conducted with the aim of comparing the effectiveness of ginger and chamomile in the severity of nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing chemotherapy.
  • Methods: This Systematic review covers keywords Ginger, chamomile, nausea, vomiting, chemotherapy, cancer in SID, Scopus, PubMed, Google Scholar databases. Studies between 2010-2024 were included. In general, 62 articles were selected. After removing duplicate articles, articles with keywords in the title or abstract of the article and the full article file was available (22 articles) were evaluated using the PRISMA check list.
  • Results: The results of the studies indicated that that in general both chamomile and ginger are suggested as anti-nausea and anti-vomiting, but the reviewed articles reported variable results that can be influenced by chemotherapy regimens, anti-nausea and anti-vomiting prescriptions, duration and The dosage of ginger and chamomile has been used. It should be noted that 80% of the reviewed articles suggested the use of ginger to control nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy.Today, ginger and chamomile are used orally and inhaled to control nausea and vomiting, but oral capsules were used more often. There were fewer articles on the effectiveness of chamomile on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. 5 articles were found on the effectiveness of chamomile on nausea and vomiting. The results of these articles indicated that chamomile also has an effect on the nausea of patients, but the results of 2 articles indicated that chamomile is not effective on the number of times of vomiting.
  • Conclusion: The results of most reviewed articles suggest ginger as anti-nausea and anti-vomiting in patients undergoing chemotherapy. Even the results of some studies showed that the effectiveness of ginger on acute and delayed nausea and vomiting with a small difference is similar to the antinausea drugs ondansetron and metoclopramide. According to the variable results of the articles conducted on the effectiveness of chamomile, it is suggested that more research be done on the effectiveness of chamomile on nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy.
  • Keywords: Ginger, chamomile, nausea, vomiting, chemotherapy, cancer Ginger, chamomile, nausea, vomiting