Version May 2024
| Agent | Effect in randomly controlled trial (not pregnant) | Pregnancy data |
| Zinc gluconate | The evidence of zinc efficacy for treating the common cold is inconclusive at best, and any beneficial effect is minor. | Both high and low zinc concentrations have been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. The use of zinc for the treatment of the common cold is not justified in pregnancy. The noxious taste of zinc lozenges limit their usefulness particularly in pregnant patients. |
| Animal experiments have produced variable but frequently concerning results regarding the safety of high dose zinc supplementation in pregnancy (including increased skeletal defects in mice, exencephaly in hamsters, and an increased incidence of congenital malformations in rats). | ||
| Elevated zinc levels in the fetus have been associated with anencephaly and meningomyelocele in some studies but not in others. It is unclear whether this finding simply reflects physiologic abnormalities associated with these defects. | ||
| One recent report found one infant with a heart defect and one with microcephaly among 26 infants born to 19 mothers treated with zinc for Wilson's disease. This population is too small to estimate whether zinc exposure played any role in the observed defects. | ||
| Zinc deficiency is associated with impaired fertility and low birth weight but is rare in the western world. | ||
| Vitamin C | Current extensive literature does not appear to support the use of vitamin C therapy for the common cold. | Little pregnancy data available however, there is concern that large doses of this vitamin may be harmful during pregnancy. Ascorbic acid appears in the fetus in concentrations higher than those in the mother and pregnant guinea pigs fed large doses of ascorbic acid gave birth to offspring with increased rates of ascorbic acid catabolism. A human parallel to this was seen in two reported cases of mothers who ingested daily high doses of vitamin C and after birth the infants developed scurvy due to an excessively rapid metabolism of vitamin C presumably induced in utero. |
| Echinacea | No evidence to support efficacy. | A report including 206 exposed pregnancies found no increased incidence of anomalies compared with controls. Given the limited data in human pregnancy, the use of echinacea is probably not justified in pregnancy. |
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