Efficacy and safety of Actaea racemosa for relieving climacteric complaints

Black cohosh (BC) is a herbal medicine being prescribed for the management of climacteric complaints. This is the first review to assess the quality of evidence for BC as measured by adherence to Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) extensions for herbal interventions and harms.

Herbal medicines such as Actaea racemosa ( A. racemosa ; synonym Cimicifuga racemosa , BC) are commonly being used by women seeking relief from menopausal (climacteric) complaints. Our objective is to evaluate the quality of reporting of clinical trials investigating A. racemosa for climacteric complaints, by grading their adherence to both the CONSORT extensions for herbal interventions, and for reporting adverse events (harms).

A systematic search of the databases: AMED, CINAHL, EBSCO, Academic Search Ultimate, Google Scholar, PubMed and Science Direct, was conducted in April 2023 and another search done March 2024. The search phrase employed included relevant herbal or herbal product keywords ["black cohosh," "actaea racemosa," "cimicifuga racemosa," "BNO 1055," "remifemin," "Ze 450"] combined using the Boolean operator term AND with keywords regarding climacteric complaints ["menopausal symptoms," "menopause," "climacteric complaints"]. Additional citation searching was conducted to identify any other published studies. Articles were included if they were clinical trials of oral use of A. racemosa in humans. Quality assessment of included articles was undertaken to review adherence to the CONSORT Statement Extensions for reporting on herbal interventions, and harms (adverse events).

Fourteen records were included in the final analysis. Adherence to the herbal extension for the CONSORT ranged between 39% and 87%, with four of them receiving an adherence rating of 50% or less. Adherence to the Harms Extension for the CONSORT ranged between 6% and 90%, with three of the articles receiving an adherence rating of 50% or less.

This is the first time a systematic review of the quality of clinical trial reports of BC, using the CONSORT herbal extension and harms checklists, has been conducted. The wide range of ratings found in our quality assessment suggests the need for further high-quality investigation of this widely used herbal preparation.