Efficacy of Pomegranate Seed Powder on Glucose and Lipid Metabolism in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Prospective Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial
What this study found
Pomegranate seed powder improved glycemic outcomes over 8 weeks, with significantly lower post-intervention fasting blood glucose and HbA1c versus placebo. Post-intervention FBG was 135.83±35.92 mg/dL in the PSP group versus 158.84±39.04 mg/dL in placebo (p=0.02), and HbA1c was 6.94±0.77 versus 7.53±0.98 (p=0.01). Effects on triglycerides and total cholesterol were not significant (TG p=0.26; cholesterol p=0.51). The authors concluded PSP may be a useful complementary treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes, but larger and longer studies are needed.
- Study & population
- Prospective randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus treated with oral hypoglycemic agents and not insulin, conducted at the Diabetes Research Center of Yazd, Iran.
- Intervention
- Pomegranate seed powder (PSP) was given as 5 g per dose in tea bags, taken orally twice daily for 8 weeks, once in the morning on an empty stomach and once at night before bedtime.
- Key limitation
- This was a small single-center study with only 30 participants analyzed per arm and an 8-week follow-up, which limits confidence in durability and generalizability.
View source
Open PDFOriginal abstract
Introduction: Pomegranate is known as a functional food which has multiple health-promoting activities. It has been assessed for patients with metabolic syndrome. Specifically, an antidiabetic activity of its juice and plausible mechanisms for its action have been shown in multitudinous studies. The aim of this study was assessing the effects of complementary treatment with pomegranate seed powder (PSP) oral supplementation on patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods: Sixty patients were treated for 8 weeks by 5 g PSP or placebo, twice daily. Fasting blood glucose (FBG), glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), total cholesterol, and triglyceride (TG) were recorded as the outcome measures at the beginning and after the intervention. The findings were analyzed using the independent t test and Mann-Whitney U test. Results: After 8 weeks, the mean differences of FBG, HbA1c, cholesterol, and TG were significantly decreased in the PSP group when compared with the placebo group (p value <0.05). In addition, post-intervention values of FBG and HbA1c were significantly lower in patients treated with PSP compared to the placebo group (p values = 0.02 and 0.01, respectively). However, the latter comparison regarding cholesterol and TG showed no significant differences (p values = 0.51 and 0.26, respectively). Conclusion: It seems that complementary treatment with PSP may have beneficial effects on FBG and HbA1c of patients with T2DM. However, its effect on TG and cholesterol was equivocal.