Effect of Nettle Extract and Pumpkin Seed on Prostate Spe-cific Antigen and Urinary Symptoms in Patients TakingAlfa-blocker for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia

We aimed to compare the effect of nettle extract and pumpkin seed on Prostate Specific Anti-gen (PSA) and international prostate symptoms score (IPSS) in patients taking alfa-blocker for benign prostatichyperplasia (BPH).

For this purpose, 90 outpatients were studied in three groups, in-cluding men over 40 years of age with benign prostatic enlargement. The first group (Urtidin) contained con-sumers of nettle extract from Barijessence Company called Urtidin tablets with tamsulosin; the second grouptook tablets containing pumpkin seed extract called Prosta Barij and tamsulosin; the third group (Control) re-ceived only tamsulosin for three months. Patients were not randomly assigned to the groups. PSA, IPSS, and re-lated factors were evaluated and analyzed using SPSS software.

89 patients completed the study (30/89in Urtidin group with a mean age of 62.4±7.39 years, 29/89 in Prosta Barij group with a mean age of 65.9±7.32years, and 30/89 in the control group with a mean age of 64.7±8.64 years). The results showed that nettle andpumpkin seed extracts affect PSA in patients taking tamsulosin for BPH. Also, after the intervention, IPSS hada significant decrease compared with baseline in both drug treatment groups. There was no significant differ-ence in these three types of treatment.

It seems that the desired herbal products did not have asynergistic effect with alpha blockers in the control and treatment of BPH but they can affect the serum PSAlevel.