Background Modern living, combined with the impacts of COVID-19 and an ever-changing geopolitical climate exacerbates stress in people’s lives. Consequently, it is an urgent priority to find practical, evidence-based stress management strategies. Time spent in nature is known to significantly reduce stress, and immersion within forests (forest bathing) is known to benefit human health. Although the health effects of forest bathing have been studied, there is a need to expand the literature around how such interventions impact stress specifically.

Aim To appraise recent literature in the fields of forest bathing and stress reduction to ascertain whether adults experience improved stress adaptation after participating in forest-based interventions.

Methods A search of peer-reviewed literature was conducted through EBSCOhost, Scopus, PubMed and GoogleScholar databases from 27 February 2021 to 7 March 2021 to find studies investigating effects of forest bathing on human stress responses.

Results Nine studies meeting inclusion criteria were selected and appraised based on study populations, sample sizes, study designs, outcome measures, intervention characteristics and safety considerations.

Conclusions This review evaluates recent research investigating the effects of forest-based interventions on stress, which indicate forest bathing may have beneficial psychophysiological effects on stress. Drawing firm conclusions is difficult due to the heterogeneity of the research. Future research may benefit from more rigorous RCTs with active controls, and detailed reporting on characteristics of intervention locations so that seasonal and region-specific variables are considered. Overall critical analysis of studies analysed herein suggest that prescribing time in nature could be a beneficial recommendation for patients to manage stress.

Introduction Oral mucositis is a condition that significantly impairs individuals and can be triggered by anticancer treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy. It leads to inflammation and ulcers in the oral cavity during cancer treatment, posing limitations on the dosage. While cancer treatments can have various side effects, some are specific to certain tissues, such as mucositis, while others are more widespread, such as depression. Radiotherapy, in particular, produces reactive radical oxygen species (ROS) as a means of combating cancer cells, making it the primary cause of persistent oral mucositis. ROS can harm healthy cells, tissues, and blood vessels, directly contributing to mucosal damage. By inhibiting ROS, it is possible to decrease tissue damage and oral mucositis, thus alleviating an important and meaningful side effect for cancer patients.

As green tea is rich in antioxidants, this research study investigated the effects of green tea on the prevention and treatment of mucositis caused by radiation in people with head and neck carcinoma.

Methods This double-blind, placebo-controlled randomised control trial (RCT) included 30 patients with head and neck carcinoma being treated with radiotherapy at the Cancer Institute at Imam Khomeini Hospital at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Fifteen patients were randomly assigned to receive green tea mouthwash and 15 patients received saline solution (0.9%). We recorded the grade of mucositis, pain and burning sensation. All patients received their radiotherapy treatment for 6 weeks. An oral medicine specialist attended weekly up to 2 weeks after the end of the trial. Outcomes were assessed at 8 weeks.

Results The severity of mucositis significantly decreased during weeks 5–8 in the study group compared to the control group. The severity of mucositis worsened in the control group. There were no significant differences between groups for pain.

Conclusions Green tea mouthwash significantly reduced mucositis in patients with head and neck cancer but did not reduce the severity of pain compared to control.

These abstracts are brief summaries of articles in recent issues of medical journals. Articles selected are of a general nature for the information of practitioners of naturopathy and herbal medicine. A dominant theme is often present throughout the journals which will be reflected in the reviews.

These abstracts are brief summaries of articles which have appeared in recent issues of herbal medicine journals, some of which may be held in the NHAA library.

The AJHNM-based CPD questionnaire system is a voluntary system designed to assist members in the accumulation of NHAA CPD hours. Each question refers to an article in this issue of the Australian Journal of Herbal and Naturopathic Medicine. Hours accumulated through completion of these questions should be recorded in the NHAA CPD diary. The completion of answering each issue’s questions qualifies for 4 hours within the Formal Learning category. Your completed CPD diary should be returned with your membership renewal at the end of the financial year. For further information, please see the NHAA CPD Guide on the NHAA website www.nhaa.org.au.