Evaluating the Anti-Oxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Properties of Watercress Supplementation at Short-Term Follow-Up: A...

Watercress (WC) has been used extensively in traditional medicine for various healthcare conditions such as hypertension, hyperglycemia, arthritis, and more. This systematic review evaluates WC's antioxidant and anti-inflammatory markers in human studies. A systematic review search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library for studies reporting anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative markers following WC supplementation, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Study variables included the number of patients, dosage/formulation of WC, mean age, and follow-up time, pre- and post-intervention antioxidant/anti-inflammatory outcomes, and complications. Seven RCTs, including 302 patients with a mean age of 47 years (23-61) and a mean follow-up time of 39 days (21-60), were included in this study. The dosage varied from 85 g/day to 750 mg/kg/day. Antioxidant parameters reported included superoxide dismutase (five studies), ferric-reducing antioxidant power (two studies), glutathione peroxidase (two studies), retinol (two studies), β-carotene (two studies), and α-tocopherol (two studies). Oxidative stress parameters included protein carbonyls (four studies), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (two studies), malondialdehyde (two studies), nitric oxide (two studies), T-SH (two studies), and CAT (three studies). Inflammatory markers included two studies reporting on tumor necrosis factor-a (two studies) and one study reporting on interleukin-1, interleukin-6, and C-reactive protein. WC administration demonstrated improvement for most antioxidant and anti-inflammatory markers and had a strong safety profile. WC had a positive effect on anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory markers. However, the relatively short follow-up times and heterogeneous patient demographics and formulations/dosages of WC warrant further studies to assess the benefits of WC.