Effectiveness of Cherries in Reducing Uric Acid and Gout: A Systematic Review

Table 3

Characteristics of included studies.

First author	Year	Country	Study design	Inclusion criteria	Intervention	Study subject	Mean age (years)	Gender (M/F)	Race	BMI	Outcome measures
Jacob	2003	USA	Follow-up study	Screened for good health by a medical history questionnaire, physical exam, and standardized blood and urine tests; including a complete blood cell count with leukocytes differentials, clinical chemistry panel, urinalysis, and tests for infectious diseases	Through consumption of two servings (280 g) of cherries after an overnight fast	10 healthy women	29.9 ± 6.1(range: 22–40)	0/10	Primarily caucasian	NA	Plasma urate decreased significantly over the 5 h period after cherry consumption, and the concentration at 5 h post-dose was significantly lower than at the baseline
Schlesinger	2012	USA	Randomized controlled trial (RCT)	Patients with monosodium urate (MSU) crystal-proven gout	The case and control group received a tablespoon of juice concentrate twice a day, with an intervention period of 4 months	Case-cherry juice (n = 9); Control-pomegranate juice (n = 5)	56.43 ± 4.10 (range 28–75)	NA	Caucasian: 11, Asian: 1, Hispanic: 1 African American: 1	30.02 ± 0.84 (range: 24.4–34.4)	Overall, serum urate levels were only slightly reduced following treatment with either cherry juice (from 8.37 ± 0.82 to 8.17 ± 1.1 mg/dL) or pomegranate juice (from 7.45 ± 1.62 to 6.14 ± 1.07 mg/dL)
Zhang	2012	USA	Case-crossover study	Gout diagnosed by a physician and that have suffered a gout attack within the past 12 months	Cherry intake, for more than 2 days	663 patients (gout patients)	54 (21–88)	494 (78%)/169 (22%)	Black: 19 (3%); White: 558 (88.2%); Other: 47 (7.4%); Refused to answer: 9 (1.4%)	BMI (kg/m^2, median, range) 30.6 (14.7–69.9)	(OR) = 0.65, 95% CI: 0.50–0.85) for gout risk
Bell	2014	UK	Single blind, two-phase, randomized, crossover design	Volunteered for the study; all volunteers confirmed they were nonsmokers, had no known food allergies, and no history of gastrointestinal, renal, or cardiovascular disease or use of food supplementations	The bioavailability of anthocyanins followed by the ingestion of two different doses of montmorency tart cherry juice concentrate (MC)	12 healthy participants	26 ± 3	11/1	NA	NA	Serum urate displayed effects after a significant amount of time (F (1, 8) = 10.626, )
Singh	2015	USA	Retrospective cohort study	293 internet survey respondents; 220 (75%) with gout; 61 (21%)W/O gout; 12 (4%) no response	Cherry intake (1 month)	220 gout patients	55.2 ± 14.1	74%/26%	White: 79%		Cherry intake has significantly stronger effects in producing less number of gout flare vs. none (1.54 vs. 1.91, )
Martin	2019	USA	Randomized, placebo-controlled dietary intervention	Participants were aged ≥18 y, not pregnant, not diabetic, with no unresolved infections or diseases (diabetes, cardiovascular disease, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, or liver disease), and nonsmokers	Through consumption of 240 mL/d of either tart cherry juice (TCJ) or placebo beverage	26 participants (overweight and obese participants with body mass index (BMI) > 25.0 kg/m^2)	41 ± 11 (range 22–61 y)	8/18	NA	Mean ± SE; 31.3 ± 6.3 (range 25.1–51.3)	TCJ significantly reduced serum uric acid concentration by 19.2% ()