Potential Effects of Silymarin and Its Flavonolignan Components in Patients with β-Thalassemia Major: A Comprehensive Review in 2015

Table 1

Summary of carried-out randomized clinical trials of silymarin in patients with β-TM.

Study; author (reference)	Methods					Ferritin (ng/mL)
	Groups		Silymarin dose	Study design	Period of study (week)	Intervention group		Control group		P value between groups
	Intervention ()	Control ()				Baseline	End	Baseline	End
Gharagozloo et al., 2009 [11]	DFO plus silymarin ()	DFO plus placebo ()	40 mg/kg/day	Parallel	12	4285.4 ± 2181.3	3548.3 ± 2012.8	3772.7 ± 1806.6	3727.8 ± 2025.0	NS
Moayedi et al., 2013 [21]	DFO plus silymarin ()	DFO plus placebo ()	40 mg/kg/day	Parallel	36	3028.8 ± 2002.6	1972.2 ± 1250.6	1780.19 ± 1089.5	2213.8 ± 1375.1	0.01
Gharagozloo et al., 2013 [3]	silymarin ()	DFO plus silymarin ()	40 mg/kg/day	Parallel	12	NM	NM	NM	NM	—
Balouchi et al., 2014 [24]	DFO plus silymarin ()	DFO plus placebo ()	40 mg/kg/day	Parallel	24	2292.20 ± 1382.26	1935.70 ± 1649.35	1701.56 ± 773.51	1794.67 ± 870.65	NS
Hagag et al., 2013 [25]	DFX plus silymarin ()	DFX plus placebo ()	40 mg/kg/day	Parallel	24	3253.7 + 707.1	1067.2 + 297.9	3049.2 + 527.7	1795.3 + 551.6	0.001
Hagag et al., 2015 [22]	DFP plus silymarin ()	DFP plus placebo ()	40 mg/kg/day	Parallel	36	1901 + 563.38	989.5 + 178.57	1885.2 + 510.54	1260 + 212.26	<0.001

NS: nonsignificant.
NM: nonmeasured.