Rosa damascena, a member of the Rosaceae family, is an ancient holy plant. This ornamental plant is famous for its beneficial effects. R. damascena has been used as a traditional medicinal plant since ancient times because of its therapeutic activity. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the effects of R. damascena and its phytochemical compounds on smooth muscle contractility and their underlying mechanisms of action. A literature search was performed on PubMed, Web of Science, ResearchGate, MEDLINE (EBSCO), and Semantic Scholar databases, and was limited to English and Turkish articles. The keywords used were “Rosa damascena”, “smooth muscle”, “relaxation”, “contraction”, and “phytochemical compounds”. A total of 25 studies investigating the effects of R. damascena on various smooth muscles. R. damascena and the phytochemical constituents of R. damascena alter the contractile properties of the ileal, jejunal, arterial, tracheal, and uterine smooth muscle cells. It exhibits hypotensive, hypertensive, laxative, and analgesic actions in vivo. This review article presents a comprehensive study on the effects of R. damascena and its constituents on smooth muscle contractility. R. damascena may be beneficial for the treatment of certain cardiovascular and respiratory disorders, constipation, and dysmenorrhea.

A Colonic transit study (CTS) is useful and necessary for understanding the pathophysiology of disease that present with colonic motility dysfunction such as chronic constipation (CC). CTSs using radiopaque markers are a simple, safe, inexpensive, and easy to perform. However, no radiopaque markers are available and CTSs are not able to perform in Japanese clinical practice. Currently, we are working on the development of a domestically produced radiopaque markesr for measuring colonic transit time. The aim of this study was to ensure the safety of radiopaque markers under development. Five patients with CC who were receiving drug treatment were eligible for this study. The study participants ingested one gelatin capsule containing 24 radiopaque markers in the morning on Day 1. A single abdominal radiograph (posteroanterior) was performed 5 days after ingestion (Day 5) to count the number of radiopaque markers in the abdomen. No marker-related adverse effects were observed, and the safety of the radiopaque markers, which was the primary outcome of this study, was acceptable. Of the five patients who ingested the markers, only one had a residual marker on their abdominal radiograph after 5 days, and the marker was easily visible in this patient. We found no particular safety issues with the domestically produced radiopaque markers. However, further studies are required to examine the efficacy of these markers.