Phytother Res. 2010 Feb;24(2):240-4. doi: 10.1002/ptr.2919.

Efficacy of purslane in the treatment of oral lichen planus.

Agha-Hosseini F1, Borhan-Mojabi K, Monsef-Esfahani HR, Mirzaii-Dizgah I, Etemad-Moghadam S, Karagah A.

• 1Department of Oral Medicine, Faculty of Dentistry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. aghahose@sina.tums.ac.ir

Abstract

This study evaluated the effectiveness of antioxidant-rich purslane in the treatment of oral lichen planus (OLP). A total of 37 biopsy-proven symptomatic OLP patients were selected for this randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial.

All subjects were divided into two groups to receive purslane (n = 20) or placebo (n = 17) for 3 months. Assessments were made at baseline, after 2 weeks and each month for 6 months, based on the visual analog scale (VAS) and clinical improvement including lesion type and size.

Approximately 83% of the purslane patients showed partial to complete clinical improvement but 17% had no response.

In the placebo group 17% experienced partial improvement, 73% did not respond and 10% showed worsening.

According to VAS scores, a partial to complete response was observed in all purslane-treated patients, while 71%, 15% and 14% of the controls demonstrated partial response, no response and worsening of the symptoms, respectively.

A significant decrease in VAS scores was seen at the end of the study period (p < 0.001).

No serious side-effects occurred in either of the groups.

According to our findings purslane is clinically effective in the treatment of OLP. Considering the lack of side-effects during the study period, it may be a favorable alternative treatment for OLP.

(c) 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID:

19585472