Rose, Lavender, and Ginger Essential Oils Reduce Post-Operative Nausea

by | Jul 8, 2019 | 2019, Alternative Therapies, Essential Oils

Written by Chrystal Moulton, Staff Writer. Lavender and ginger essential oils significantly improved post-operative nausea.

essential oilsEssential oils are comprised of a mixture of compounds produced by the secretory glands of plants. Each plant produces its own mixture of active compounds exhibiting unique properties and biological uses. Traditionally essential oils were used for healing. Currently researchers have found the components in these oils exhibit anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant capabilities. 1 For example, rose oil is shown to help with arthritic and lower back pain 2 and has antidiabetic as well as antitussive effects. 3  Lavender oil is known as a relaxant 4 with some analgesic properties 5,6 and ginger oil is used for its analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antiemetic properties. 7,8  in the current study, researchers investigated the antiemetic effects of ginger, lavender, and rose oil aromatherapies versus placebo on patients’ post-operative nausea. 9

A total of 184 patients were eligible to participate in the study. The study was a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Participants were divided into 4 groups: rose oil, ginger oil, lavender oil, and placebo and were given 1 of 3 oils or placebo to sniff for 5minutes Immediately post-op. Researchers measured patients nausea scores immediately post-op as well as 15 and 40 minutes after sniffing the assigned treatment oil or placebo. Patients ranked their level of nausea from 0-3 (based on the Likert scale: 0- no nausea, 1- some nausea, 2- a lot of nausea, 3- severe nausea). Anti-emetic drug was provided to patients with scores higher than 1.

Overall improvement in nausea was observed over all groups (percent improvement in nausea scores: ginger oil 65.2%, rose oil 47.8%, lavender oil 82.6%, and placebo 43.5%) . However, among the 3 aromatherapy treatments, lavender and ginger oil was significantly correlated with improvement in nausea (p<0.005 and p=0.04, respectively). Researchers concluded that although aromatherapy may be an effective tool against post-operative nausea more studies will be needed to confirm these results.

Source: Karaman, Serkan, Tugba Karaman, Hakan Tapar, Serkan Dogru, and Mustafa Suren. “A randomized placebo-controlled study of aromatherapy for the treatment of postoperative nausea and vomiting.” Complementary therapies in medicine 42 (2019): 417-421.

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Posted July 8, 2019.

Chrystal Moulton BA, PMP, is a 2008 graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago. She graduated with a bachelor’s in psychology with a focus on premedical studies and is a licensed project manager. She currently resides in Indianapolis, IN.

References:

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