Abstract
AIMS: Ulcerative colitis (UC) significantly impacts individuals' self-perception, body image, and overall quality of life, while also imposing considerable economic costs. These challenges highlight the necessity for complementary therapeutic strategies with reduced adverse effects to support conventional pharmacological treatments. Among natural interventions, Montmorency tart cherries, noted for their high anthocyanin content have emerged as a natural anti-inflammatory agent for UC. The current trial aimed to investigate the effects of Montmorency tart cherries compared to placebo in patients with mild to moderate UC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-five patients with UC were randomly assigned to receive either placebo or Montmorency tart cherry juice, of which they drank 60 mL per day for 6 weeks. The primary outcomes and health-related quality of life, measured via the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Quality of Life Questionnaire (IBDQ), and the secondary measures, including other health-related questionnaires, blood biomarkers, and faecal samples, were measured before and after the intervention. Linear mixed-effects models were adopted to contrast the changes from baseline to 6 weeks between trial arms. Effect sizes were calculated using Cohen's d. RESULTS: There were significantly greater improvements in the IBDQ (22.61 (95% CI = 5.24 to 39.99) d = 0.90) and simple clinical colitis activity index (-3.98 (95% CI = -6.69 to -1.28) d = -1.01) in the tart cherry trial arm compared to placebo. In addition, reductions in faecal calprotectin levels were significantly greater in the tart cherry trial arm compared to placebo (-136.17 µg/g (95% CI = -258.06 to -4.28) d = -1.14). Loss to follow-up (N = 1) and adverse events (N = 1) were low and compliance was very high in the tart cherry (95.8%) trial arm. CONCLUSIONS: Given the profoundly negative effects of UC on health-related quality of life and its fiscal implications for global healthcare systems, this trial indicates that twice-daily tart cherry supplementation can improve IBD-related quality of life as well as the severity of symptoms and therefore may be important in the management of UC.