Blackmores Institute

The randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial, published in Phytotherapy Research, recruited 70 patients with liver cirrhosis aged 20–70 years who were randomly divided into two groups to receive 1,000 mg/day curcumin (n = 35) or placebo.
 
 Model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) (i), MELD, MELD-Na, and Child–Pugh scores were used to assess the severity of cirrhosis. Researchers reported that scores decreased significantly in the curcumin group after 3-month intervention (p &lt; .001, p &lt; .001, p = .001, and p = .051, respectively), whereas they increased significantly in the placebo group (p &lt; .001, p &lt; .001, p &lt; .001, p = .001, respectively) – finding that curcumin supplementation decreased disease activity score and the severity of cirrhosis in patients.
 
 “Liver cirrhosis is an end-stage condition and a complicated situation identified by progressive fibrosis and disruption of the liver tissue. It has been considered as a significant risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma and the prominent cause of liver disease-associated morbidity and mortality.
 
 “Currently, there are no approved agents available for prevention and treatment of liver fibrosis; however, possible anti-fibrotic treatments are used for inhibiting fibrogenic cells activation, inducing activated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) apoptosis, and/or preventing extracellular matrix proteins deposition, but more recently, increasing attention has been paid to natural herbal remedies as a potential therapy for liver cirrhosis, particularly due to their plentiful source of anti-fibrogenic agents as well as their lesser adverse effects, lower costs, and higher acceptability,” the authors explained.
 
 “Previous studies have found that curcumin possesses hepatoprotective effects and exhibits therapeutic functions in different liver diseases including hepatitis, alcoholic liver disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), drug-induced hepatotoxicity, liver cancer, biliary cirrhosis, and primary sclerosing cholangitis. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial to assess the effects of curcumin supplementation in patients with liver cirrhosis.”
 
 The results of the study indicated that curcumin supplementation led to a significant reduction in serum levels of alkaline phosphatase, bilirubin and international normalised ratio compared with the baseline levels in the treatment group (n=29) and those in the placebo group (n=30). In addition, the results also showed that curcumin supplementation contributed to a significant reduction in disease activity scores and severity of cirrhosis compared with the baseline and those in the placebo group.
 
 While the study results are encouraging, the authors called for further studies to be undertaken to further assess the safety of curcumin as a complementary treatment in patients with liver cirrhosis.
 
 “These findings were in agreement with the results of previous studies indicating that curcumin attenuated liver fibrosis and had beneficial effects in experimental and animal models of liver injury and cirrhosis,” the authors concluded.
 
 Source:
 Phytotherapy Research. 2020. DOI: <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ptr.6620">10.1002/ptr.6620</a>

New research on the effect of curcumin on liver cirrhosis offers hope for complementary treatment options for this disease.

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