Effects of peppermint oil in patients with irritable bowel syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Backgroud: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to investigate the clinical effects of peppermint oil (PO) on the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome（IBS). Methods: : Randomized controlled trials of PO for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome were retrieved by computer from PubMed, Cochrane CENTRAL, EMBASE, and Web of science until December 30, 2021, and a meta-analysis was performed using Revman5.3 software. Results: : Seven high-quality studies included a total of 722 participants. PO improved both IBS Symptom Severity Scale (IBS-SSS) and IBS quality of life (IBS-QOL) scores, although not significantly better than placebo(IBS-SSS ：MD = 15.35, 95% CI: -25.16-55.86, P = 0.46;IBS-QOL：MD = 0.78, 95% CI: -0.18-1.74, P = 0.11)；IBS-Global improvement in symptoms (IBS-GIS）of the PO group improved significantly compared with the placebo group (RR = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.20-2.17, P = 0.002). The PO group had significantly higher adverse events than the placebo group (RR 1.48, 95% CI: 1.48-1.89, P = 0.0002). Conclusions: : While PO can significantly alleviate the clinical symptoms of IBS, the occurrence of adverse events will increase, and whether it will enhance IBS-SSS or IBS-QOL scores has to be researched further.