If you love to grow herbs, you’ll know that lemongrass has tons of benefits. From the culinary, medicinal, beauty, even until fragrance benefits. Because of technology development, now you can cultivate also harvest them in your garden. But, instead of talking about how to plant or how to harvest lemongrass, we’ll talk about its effects. One of them is gonna be the effect of lemongrass for pregnancy.
Besides all of the benefits, lemongrass is– in fact–not good for pregnancy. There is a lot of advice to avoid lemongrass products during pregnancy because it can have negative impacts on the mother and the fetus. An expectant mother is better to avoid lemongrass because of its substances that can lead to miscarriage.
What You Need To Know Before Consuming Lemongrass When Pregnant
One thing for concern is how safe the lemongrass for pregnancy. It indeed contains a lot of nutrients like vitamins A and C, calcium, zinc, folic acid, and many more. Those nutrients can help most people to fulfill their daily dietary needs. Thus, this is what makes lemongrass very beneficial for normal people’s health.
However, a pregnant woman, lemongrass is a threat. In this case, don’t consume it too often or too much because it damages the fetus and can lead to miscarriage. Consuming high doses of lemongrass during pregnancy can cause interruptions in the skeletal development of the fetus. So, for safety, it’s best to consult and talk to the doctor before consuming any lemongrass during pregnancy.
Why Is It Better to Avoid Lemongrass For Pregnancy
Anything that the mother consumes during pregnancy can affect them and their unborn baby. So, they need extra care and caution about their diet and its doses. In this case, consuming lemongrass products seems like a risk for their pregnancy, and they better avoid it. Furthermore, here are some health risks associated with lemongrass for pregnancy:
Birth Defects
Lemongrass contains citral and myrcene, these two compounds induce maternal toxicity. This research is based on Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2015 with some rats. Also, anti-mitotic and apoptotic on lemongrass are likely to interfere with undergoing rapid cell growth of the fetus.
Miscarriage
As we know, lemongrass can help with the menstrual cycle because of the substances. Furthermore, it also allows for stimulating the uterus. In this case, there is might be a concern that lemongrass can cause a miscarriage. Moreover, consuming high doses of lemongrass can also trigger premature birth.
Allergies
During pregnancy, the mother’s body usually becomes more sensitive than any other days. That’s because the hormone changes quicker than usual. Thus, consuming lemongrass might trigger some allergies, like skin itching, rashes, swelling, even breathing difficulties.
Besides all the health benefits that we can get from lemongrass, it lemongrass for pregnancy is harming. In this case, it’s better not to consume any lemongrass products during pregnancy. Thus, it’s very important to talk to the doctor if you want to add ingredients to your diet when you’re pregnant. Since the hormone level during pregnancy might be unstable, it’s very important to put extra care on the diet.