Effects of curcumin plus piperine on oxidative stress markers in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial

Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common chronic liver diseases worldwide and oxidative stress (OS) is one of the most important factors of pathophysiology in the development of this disease. The use of antioxidant agents for preventing and treating NAFLD has been suggested in several studies. Due to the antioxidant function of curcumin, the effects of curcumin on serum level of malondialdehyde (MDA) as an oxidative stress marker and enzymes activity level of catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were investigated in this study.

In this study, 70 patients with NAFLD were selected and distributed through randomized blocks in two groups of receiving curcumin 500mg plus piperine 5mg and placebo. CAT and SOD markers were measured by photometric method and MDA marker by calorimetric method before and after the intervention.

Comparison of the changes in the serum level of MDA factor and the activity of CAT and SOD enzymes in the serum of the studied patients after the intervention showed that the serum activity of catalase enzyme increased significantly due to the consumption of the combination of curcumin 500 mg and piperine 5 mg (p = 0.008) while SOD and MDA factors did not show any significant difference in the two studied groups.

The results indicate that daily use of curcumin in patients with NAFLD can increase the serum activity of catalase. According to the results of this study, the use of curcumin as a natural supplement, might be effective in blunting the negative effects of oxidative stress in patients with NAFLD.