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Effects of Psidium guajava Linn. leaf extract in Japanese subjects with knee pain: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel pilot study

Aging Clinical and Experimental Research volume 30, pages 1391–1398 (2018)Cite this article

Abstract

The extract of Psidium guajava Linn. (guava) leaf was recently revealed to suppress the advance of osteoarthritis (OA) in rat anterior cruciate ligament-transection models. To investigate the efficacy of guava leaf extract in improving knee pain, which is a common symptom of OA, we conducted a double-blind parallel pilot clinical study in Japanese subjects with knee pain. The subjects, who had no medical history of knee treatment, were randomly assigned to two groups with similar total Japanese Knee Osteoarthritis Measure (JKOM) scores. During the 12-week intake period, the subjects in each group ingested 1 g of guava leaf extract (the guava group) or placebo (the placebo group) daily. At week 12, pain and stiffness in knees (one subcategory of JKOM score) in the guava group was significantly lower than that in the placebo group. Using the visual analogue scale (VAS) for knee pain, a significant association between treatment effect and test period was shown, and the guava group had a lower VAS score at week 12 than the placebo group. In conclusion, continuous intake of guava leaf extract might relieve knee pain, suggesting a potential preventive effect against OA symptoms.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by Kao Corporation. All authors; S. Kakuo, T. Fushimi, K. Kawasaki, J. Nakamura and N. Ota are employees of this company. We would like to thank Editage (http://www.editage.jp) for English language editing.

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Author notes

  1. Shingo Kakuo and Takashi Fushimi have contributed equally to this work.

Affiliations

  1. Biological Science Research Laboratories, Kao Corporation, 2606 Akabane, Ichikai-machi, Haga-gun, Tochigi, 321-3497, Japan

    Shingo Kakuo, Takashi Fushimi, Keiko Kawasaki & Noriyasu Ota

  2. Kansei Science Research Laboratories, Kao Corporation, 2606 Akabane, Ichikai-machi, Haga-gun, Tochigi, 321-3497, Japan

    Junji Nakamura

Authors
  1. Shingo Kakuo
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  2. Takashi Fushimi
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  3. Keiko Kawasaki
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  4. Junji Nakamura
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  5. Noriyasu Ota
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Contributions

SK, JN and NO designed this study. SK and TF analyzed data. SK, TF and NO interpreted the results. KK prepared test samples. TF and NO drafted this manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Noriyasu Ota.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest associated with this manuscript.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Ethics Committee of Kao Corporation and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The present study protocol was registered in the University Hospital Medical Information Network (UMIN), one of the ICMJE-accredited clinical trial sites (ID: UMIN 000031558). This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Written informed consent for participation was obtained from all individual participants in the study.

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Kakuo, S., Fushimi, T., Kawasaki, K. et al. Effects of Psidium guajava Linn. leaf extract in Japanese subjects with knee pain: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel pilot study. Aging Clin Exp Res 30, 1391–1398 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-018-0953-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-018-0953-6

Keywords

  • Guava leaf extract
  • Knee pain
  • Osteoarthritis
  • JKOM
  • VAS