Hypolipidemic Effects of Three Purgative Decoctions

Table 2

Summary of human clinical trials examining the metabolic effects of rhubarb or rhubarb-containing polyherbal preparations on body weight, serum total cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride (TG).

Ref.	Study type	Subjects	Treatment^c	Duration	Metabolic effect
					Body weight^a	TC^b	TG^c	Adverse effects
[15]	Case series	10 men with hyper-cholesterolemia	Fibre of Rheum rhaponticum (27 g)	4 weeks	NSD	↓ * (8%)	↓	none
[16]	R, case- control	95 pregnancy induced hypertensive women	Diet control and Western medication with or without prepared rhubarb (3–9 g)	6–8 weeks	NR	T: NSD	T: ↓*	NR
[17]	Case series	232 NAFLD patients	Danning Pian	3 months	NSD	NSD	↓ *	15.1% including diarrhoea [32], itchy skin [1], nausea [3], increased ALT [2]
[18]	R, db, pc	81 obese female with impaired glucose tolerance	Diet and exercise with either Bofu-Tsusho-San (BO) or placebo	24 weeks	P: ↓* (7.6%); T: ↓* (11.8%)	P: ↓*; T: ↓*	P: ↓*; T: ↓*	3 in BO group dropped out due to noncompliance because of loose stool
[19]	R, db, pc	110 perimenopause women	ERr731 or placebo	12 weeks	P:NSD T:NSD	NR	NR	No
[20]	R, case-control	24 healthy women	Diet control with NT (250–500 mg) or placebo	12 weeks	P: ↓, T:NSD	NR	NR	Dose-dependent soft stool in T group
[21]	R, P-control	105 healthy volunteers	Low or high dose of mixture of NT with gallic acid or placebo	24 weeks	P: ↓, T(low dose):  ↓; T (high dose): ↑	NSD	NSD	40% cases dropped out due to ineffectiveness
[22]	R, db, control	135 NAFLD patients	T: Danning Pian	24 weeks	C:NE; T: ↓*	C: ↓; T: ↓	C: ↓*; T: ↓*	T: most showed diarrhoea, skin rash [1], nausea [3]

NSD, no significant difference; ↓, reduced; NR, not reported in the study; ↑, increased. R, randomized; db, double-blind; pc, placebo-controlled; P, placebo group; T, treatment (experimental) group; C, control group. NAFLD, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; ERr 731, extract from the roots of Rheum rhaponticum; NT, contains 40% rhubarb root and stem; Danning Pian: each tablet contain 4.5 g Radix et Rhizoma Rhei. BO, Bofu-tsusho-san, consists of Rhei Rhizoma, Scutellariae Radix, Glycyrrhizae Radix, Platycodi Radix, Atractylodis Lanceae Rhizoma, Schizonepetae Spica, Gardeniae Fructus, Paeonia Radix, Cnidii Rhizoma, Angelicae Radix, Menthae Folium, Saposhnikoviae Radix, Ephedrae herba, Forsythiae Fructus, Zingiberis Rhizoma, Kaolinum, Gypsum Fibrosum, Natrium Sulfuricum.
^a Effect on body weight reduction; ^b Effect on TC reduction; ^c Effect on TG reduction; * Statistically significant.