BACKGROUND: Hyperlipidemia is one of the important diseases in pregnancy that causes fetal
abnormalities during pregnancy and after the birth. Unfortunately, the usual anti-fat drugs are
associated with high morbidity in fetus and due to people's inclination towards taking herbs, it is
required to identify side effects of medicinal herbs in pregnancy. The aim of this study was to
present hypolipidemic herbs that would not any complications for mother and fetus.
METHODS: In this review article, the major electronic databases such as EBSCO, Central
Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), China Network Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI),
Cochrane, Google scholar, MEDLINE, SciVerse, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched
using the key words “herbal” and “hyperlipidemia”, “herbal” and “pregnancy” matched by MeSH
from their respective inceptions till September, 2016. Total of 1723 publications (145 review
articles, 855 original research articles, and 723 abstracts) about the effect of herbals on
hyperlipidemia and 682 publications (200 abstracts, 423 original research articles, and 59 review
articles) about the effect of herbals in pregnancy were retrieved. At the end, a list of medicinal
plants effective on hyperlipidemia alongside their effects on pregnancy was developed. Finally, the
plants effective on hyperlipidemia and safe during pregnancy were determined and their dosage,
complications, mechanism of action, and side effects were reported.
RESULTS: A total of 110 effective herbs on hyperlipidemia were identified and complications of
95 plants in pregnancy were studied. At last, among the 55 selected plants effective on
hyperlipidemia and examined for pregnancy, we reported 12 herbs with their dosage and special
considerations that can be used to treat hyperlipidemia during pregnancy.
CONCLUSION: Some medicinal plants can be used to treat hyperlipidemia during pregnancy
without any significant side effects both on mother or fetus
