Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2005; 10: 13
The aim of this study was to gather preliminary data on the effectiveness and tolerability of a juice prepared from organically cultivated potatoes.
Forty-five patients suffering from dyspeptic symptoms for more than 12 weeks in the preceding year gave written informed consent to drink twice daily 100 ml or more of fresh potato juice (Biotta AG) for 7 days while continuing with their current dyspepsia medication if they took any. Once their baseline characteristics had been recorded, validated instruments [the gastrointestinal symptom profile (GIS) and a disease-specific quality of life measure (QOLRAD)] and self-rated treatment success (efficacy, scale 0 to 4) were used to evaluate the outcome.
One patient withdrew permission to use her data. Two patients dropped out because of insufficient relief. The improvement in GIS was 42% (P < 0.001) and that in QOLRAD was 51% (P < 0.001) (ITT analyses). The absolute values changed from 11.5 ± 5.1 to 6.3 ± 5.3 (GIS) and 62.0 ± 25.7 to 32.0 ± 28.8 (QOLRAD) (mean ± SD). Improvements were > 60% in n = 17 (GIS) and n = 18 (QOLRAD). Efficacy was rated as very good or good by n = 25. Poor treatment success was observed in 12 patients in the GIS group, 13 in the QOLRAD group and 11 in the efficacy group.
Since about two-thirds of the patients benefited to some extent from the treatment, potato juice in its present formulation may be useful for self-treatment. However, placebo-controlled studies with a longer treatment period are needed to confirm this.
