[Dry jelly concentrate with vitamins and dietary fiber in patients with IBS with constipation: a comparative...

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is highly prevalent functional gastrointestinal disorder associated with decrease in quality of life and a high social cost. Diet is one of several therapeutic options in IBS treatment; therefore the development and clinical evaluation of innovative functional food for IBS patients is useful. Dry jelly concentrate containing 3 g inulin, 10 mg curcumin and 1.8 mg of pyridoxine was developed and clinically evaluated. Fifty patients fulfilling the Rome III criteria for IBS-C were randomly assigned into two groups: one received standard diet plus two jelly drinks a day for 2 weeks and control group received standard diet. Response to therapy was recorded on a daily basis using Likert scale of abdominal pain, bloating and feeling of incomplete bowel emptying, frequency of bowel movement, Bristol stool scale, and quality of life assessed by IBSQoL questionnaire before and after the treatment. Intake of functional food product (jelly) containing inulin and curcumin is associated with a significant positive effect on the stool parameters (from 0.6±0.24 to 1.15±0.65 t/d in stool frequency, p=0.001, from 2.62±1.23 to 3.99±1.27, index Bristol scale, p=0.001), a reduce of the severity of abdominal pain (from 1.69±0.71 to 1.36±0.44 Likert scale points, p=0.001), bloating (from 2.03±0.89 to 1.55±0.81 points of Likert scale, p=0.02) and a sense of incomplete bowel emptying (from 2.25±0.98 to 1.68±0.92 points of Likert scale, p=0.001), as well as an increase in quality of life (from 64.5±13.5 to 81.2±9.1%, р=0.05). Patients in control group have improvement in abdominal pain (from 2.16±0.58 to 1.8±0.61 Likert scale points, p=0.05) and bloating (from 2.42±0.83 to 2.16±0.71 Likert scale points, p=0.05) only. During the treatment period no significant adverse events were found. These results indicate that jelly concentrate containing inulin, curcumin and pyridoxine improves abdominal pain score, Bristol scale index and quality of life in patients with IBS-C.