Effect of daily caper fruit pickle consumption on disease regression in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: A double-blinded randomized clinical trial

Abstract

Purpose: Despite numerous studies on the effects of complementary medicine, to our knowledge, there is no study on the effects of Capparis spinosa on disease regression in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients. We compared the effects of caper fruit pickle consumption, as an Iranian traditional medicine product, on the anthropometric measures and biochemical parameters in different NAFLD patients. Methods: A 12-weeks randomized, controlled, double-blind trial was designed in 44 NAFLD patients randomly categorized for the control (n=22) or caper (n=22). The caper group received 40-50 gr of caper fruit pickles with meals daily. Before and after treatment, we assessed anthropometric measures, grade of fatty liver, serum lipoproteins and liver enzymes. Results: Weight and BMI were significantly decreased in the caper (p < 0.001 and p < 0.001) and control group (p=0.001 and p=0.001), respectively. Serum TG, TC and LDL.C just were significantly decreased in the control group (p=0.01, p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). Adjusted to the baseline measures, serum ALT and AST reduction were significantly higher in the caper than control group from baseline up to the end of the study (p < 0.001 and p=0.02, respectively). After weeks 12, disease severity was significantly decreased in the caper group (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Our results suggest that daily caper fruit pickle consumption for 12 weeks may be potentially effective on improving the biochemical parameters in NAFLD patients. Further, additional larger controlled trials are needed for the verification of these results.