Chios mastic treatment of patients with active Crohn's disease

To evaluate the effectiveness of mastic administration on the clinical course and plasma inflammatory mediators of patients with active Crohn's disease (CD).

This pilot study was conducted in patients with established mild to moderately active CD, attending the outpatient clinics of the hospital, and in healthy controls. Ten patients and 8 controls were recruited for a 4-wk treatment with mastic caps (6 caps/d, 0.37 g/cap). All patients successfully completed the protocol. CD Activity Index (CDAI), Nutritional Risk Index (NRI), C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), and total antioxidant potential (TAP) were evaluated in the plasma at baseline and at the end of the treatment period. Results were expressed as mean values +/- SE and P < 0.05 was considered to indicate statistical significance.

Patients exhibited significant reduction of CDAI (222.9 +/- 18.7 vs 136.3 +/- 12.3, P = 0.05) as compared to pretreament values. Plasma IL-6 was significantly decreased (21.2 +/- 9.3 pg/mL vs 7.2 +/- 2.8 pg/ mL, P = 0.027), and so did CRP (40.3 +/- 13.1 mg/mL vs 19.7 +/- 5.5, P = 0.028). TAP was significantly increased (0.15 +/- 0.09 vs 0.57 +/- 0.15 mmol/L uric acid, P = 0.036). No patient or control exhibited any kind of side effects.

The results suggest that mastic significantly decreased the activity index and the plasma levels of IL-6 and CRP in patients with mildly to moderately active CD. Further double-blind, placebo-controlled studies in a larger number of patients are required to clarify the role of this natural product in the treatment of patients with CD.