Clinical efficacy of curcumin-based functional food mixtures for pain removal

Abstract

Functional foods have beneficial roles in health and well-being, beyond their basic nutrition. Nowadays, a lot of functional foods are emerging throughout the world. A curcumin-based functional food mixture (Karkuma) was formulated with a certain proportion of natural herbs and spices mixtures with the aim of alleviating pain. This was a three-month clinical trial conducted among a total of sixty patients with chronic pain (30 patients in the intervention and 30 patients in the control group). In the first phase, Karkuma was formulated by appropriately processing and blending mixtures of curcumin, gingerol, mulberry and multi-floral honey as the main ingredients. This formulation was standardized and sensory evaluated by a nine-point hedonic scale. The overall acceptable score was 8.1 (like very much) out of 9. The product safety and acute toxicity tests were tested in a renowned laboratory in Bangladesh and shown safe for consumption. In the second phase, these functional food mixtures claim to reduce the severity of pain and are thus evaluated by adjuvant therapy. No significant differences were found in both groups at baseline observation. After three months of intervention with Karkuma, significantly (p<0.05) relieves pain in the intervention group. However, no significant (p>0.05) decrease in pain was observed after three months of the control trial with blank Karkuma. Moreover, the hematological and liver function tests in both groups were at acceptable levels. Hence, this study acclaims the efficacy of functional food mixtures (Karkuma) against chronic pain.