| Disease | DOUBLE-BLIND, PLACEBO-CONTROLLED CLINICAL TRIAL WITH PATIENTS RANDOMLY ALLOCATED TO INTERVENTION AND CONTROL
GROUPS. PATIENTS CONSUMED 1500 MG OF BARBERRY EXTRACT OR 1500 MG HYDROXYPROPYL METHYLCELLULOSE EACH DAY
RESPECTIVELY FOR THREE MONTHS. CLINICAL SIGNS AND SERUM LEVELS OF HIGH-SENSITIVITY C-REACTIVE PROTEIN (HS-CRP),
TUMOR NECROSIS FACTOR ALPHA (TNFΑ), AND ERYTHROCYTE SEDIMENTATION RATE (ESR) WERE MEASURED BEFORE AND AFTER
INTERVENTION. CONSUMPTION OF THE EXTRACT OF BERBERIS INTEGERRIMA RESULTED IN A SIGNIFICANT DECREASE IN VISUAL ANALOG SCALE (VAS), MORNING STIFFNESS, NUMBER OF TENDER JOINTS, DISEASE ACTIVITY SCORE 28 (DAS28), GLOBAL PHYSICIAN ASSESSMENT (GPA), SERUM LEVELS OF ESR, TNFΑ (P<0.001), AND HS-CRP (P<0.01) COMPARED TO THE CONTROL GROUP. BARBERRY CAN IMPROVE CLINICAL SIGNS AND INFLAMMATORY FACTORS IN RA PATIENTS AND MAY BE USEFUL IN THEIR TREATMENT APPROACHES. |