The purpose of this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel comparison study was to evaluate the lipid-lowering effect of orally administrated nattokinase and nattokinase combined with red yeast rice (RYR) extract on blood lipids in patients with hyperlipidemia. A total of 47 patients with hyperlipidemia were assigned to one of three groups: 1. nattokinase-mono formula (50 mg/cap...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is usually associated with insulin resistance, central obesity, reduced glucose tolerance, type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertriacylglycerolaemia. The beneficial effects of resveratrol on metabolic disorders have been shown previously. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of resveratrol supplementation on cardiovascular risk factors in pati...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this double-blind and placebo-controlled trial was to investigate whether saffron (stigma of Crocus sativus L.) could relieve symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). DESIGN Double-blind, randomised and placebo-controlled trial. SETTING Departments of Gynaecology/Obstetrics and Psychiatry, Tehran and Zanjan University of Medical Sciences. POPULATION Women aged 20-45 y...

The efficacy of sublingual nifedipine in attenuating the pressor responses to laryngoscopy and intubation was studied in 40 patients undergoing elective surgery. Anaesthesia was induced with thiopentone 5.5 mg kg-1 i.v. and tracheal intubation was facilitated with suxamethonium 1.5 mg kg-1 i.v. Patients were allocated randomly to receive sublingual nifedipine 10 mg or placebo capsules 10 min be...

The study was designed to evaluate the effect of silymarin alone on hyperlipidaemia within short interval (2 weeks) period on the lipid profile. 20 patients with hyperlipidaemia of various etiologies are involved in this study (13 males, 7 females) randomized into two groups, 10 patients received placebo and 10 patients received silymarin 600mg oral capsule once daily. The lipid profile was mea...

In this work, two different technologies (electrospraying and nanospray drying) were evaluated for the encapsulation of folic acid using both a whey protein concentrate (WPC) matrix and a commercial resistant starch. The morphology of the capsules, molecular organization of the matrices upon encapsulation, encapsulation efficiency, and stability of the folic acid within the capsules under diffe...

OBJECTIVES Previous studies demonstrated that aged garlic extract reduces multiple cardiovascular risk factors. This study was designed to assess whether aged garlic extract therapy with supplements (AGE+S) favorably affects inflammatory and oxidation biomarkers, vascular function and progression of atherosclerosis as compared to placebo. METHODS In this placebo-controlled, double-blind, rand...

BACKGROUND Cannabinoid use could potentially alter HIV RNA levels by two mechanisms: immune modulation or cannabinoid-protease inhibitor interactions (because both share cytochrome P-450 metabolic pathways). OBJECTIVE To determine the short-term effects of smoked marijuana on the viral load in HIV-infected patients. DESIGN Randomized, placebo-controlled, 21-day intervention trial. SETTING...

Background and objectives: Burdock (Arcticum lappa L.) is a Eurasian species of plants in the sunflower family and has been used for hundreds of years by scientists and traditionally in North America, Europe, Asia and especially in China. It has also been used in gouts, hepatitis, blood pressure and other inflammatory disorders. There are several major compounds in dif...

Spores of the tropical mosses Pyrrhobryum spiniforme, Neckeropsis undulata and N. disticha were characterized regarding size, number per capsule and viability. Chemical substances were analyzed for P. spiniforme and N. undulata spores. Length of sporophyte seta (spore dispersal ability) was analyzed for P. spiniforme. Four to six colonies per species in each site (lowland and highland areas of ...