Introduction

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory condition affecting the inner lining of the colon. For patients with mild to moderate symptoms who do not improve with optimised mesalamine therapy, corticosteroids or immunomodulators may be necessary, although these options carry a risk of significant side effects.

Aim

Our study evaluated the efficacy of curcumin in achieving clinical remission and reducing disease severity in UC patients.

Material and methods

In this clinical trial, patients diagnosed with mild-to-moderate UC were randomised into a control group (n = 30) or a curcumin therapy group (n = 30). Both groups received standard treatment, but the experimental group additionally received 2 g of curcumin capsules daily for 2 months. Patients were recruited from the Internal Medicine Unit of Azadi Teaching Hospital in the Kurdistan Region between February 2023 and June 2024.

Results

Per-protocol analysis revealed significantly greater improvement in the curcumin therapy group compared to controls (–2.76 vs. –0.87; p = 0.0004). Both groups showed significant reductions in SCCAI scores: the curcumin group improved from 6.29 to 5.13 (p = 0.0075), while the control group improved from 5.13 to 3.65 (p < 0.0001). However, no significant difference in remission rates was observed between the groups.

Conclusions

We demonstrated that a two-month curcumin therapy regimen of 2 g daily is ineffective in reducing disease severity in patients with mild-to-moderate UC. However, patients in the curcumin therapy group showed greater improvement compared to the control group.