A Plant-Based Option to Treat Ulcerative Colitis

New data presented during Crohn’s and Colitis Congress 2023 in Denver suggest an herbal compound curcumin and QingDai outperformed placebo to induce clinical response and remission in patients with ulcerative colitis.

In the multi-center controlled trial, investigators from Israel found the promising results by week 8 for the treatment called CurQD and also found curcumin alone for an additional 8 weeks maintained the response for the majority of patients with no new safety signals.

The 2 part trial included a 4 week open-label study and a placebo-controlled trial at 2 centers in Israel and Greece.

The study represents a step up from previous research that showed the treatment was effective in treating patients with mild-moderate and moderate-severe ulcerative colitis. The results show 70% (n = 7) of patients responded, including 30% (n = 3) who achieved clinical remission.

In the second part, the co-primary outcome of clinical response and objective evidence of response was achieved in 43% of patients treated with CurQD, compared to just 8% of the placebo group.

In an interview with HCPLive®, Shomron Ben-Horin, MD, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer and Nir Salomon, co-founder and head of R&D at Evinature, said the promising results show there is space for an herbal medicine for treating ulcerative colitis.