ClinicalTrials.gg
Not yet recruitingNCT05117749Updated May 11, 2022

Saffron and Ulcerative Colitis

A Phase 2 interventional study of Saffron 100 and Saffron 50 in Ulcerative Colitis, sponsored by Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Not yet recruiting. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 80 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-05-11.

Sponsored by Shiraz University of Medical Sciences · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Primary completion was expected by Feb 2025, 1 year 9 months ago, but the record still lists the study as not yet recruiting.
Phase
Phase 2
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
60
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 80 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

IBD is a chronic disease with two major types of Crohn's Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC). Nowadays, synthetic drugs and monoclonal antibodies are the most common types of drugs used for IBD management. However, due to their side effects and the high relapse rate, many researchers are looking for plant-derived products to manage the disease. Saffron, Crocus sativus L., is widely used as spice and medicine with anti-obesity, anticonvulsant, anti-hyperlipidemic, anti-tumor, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. Besides, there is evidence of the favorable effects of saffron on the gut microbiome. The main aim of this proposal is to evaluate the effect of saffron as a complementary supplement or add-on therapy in combination with current therapeutic agents in patients with mild and moderate UC.

Read the detailed description

This study will be a parallel, randomized, double-blinded clinical trial assessing the efficacy of the saffron extract compared to placebo in patients with mild and moderate UC. Sixty eligible patients will be recruited and randomized into 6 groups to receive either saffron capsule or placebo. Randomization will be performed by an independent researcher (AAK) who is not directly involved in the trial and using software-generated random permuted blocks. Allocation concealment will be also conducted using sealed, opaque envelopes with consecutive numbering. The saffron and placebo will be provided free of charge by Sina Pajoohan Salamat co, Mashhad, Iran. The standard treatment will be administered to all patients as recommendations of the physicians.

Intervention

The intervention groups of study will be included:

  1. Mild UC patients, receiving100 milligram (mg)/day saffron for 8 weeks (50 mg two times (BID)), n=10
  2. Moderate UC patients, receiving100 mg/day saffron for 8 weeks (50 mg BID), n=10
  3. Mild UC patients, receiving 50 mg/day saffron for 8 weeks (25 mg BID), n=10
  4. Moderate UC patients, receiving 50 mg/day saffron for 8 weeks (25 mg BID), n=10
  5. Mild UC patients, receiving 2 tablets of placebo for 8 weeks, n=10
  6. Moderate UC patients, receiving 2 tablets of placebo for 8 weeks, n=10

Demographic and baseline characteristics will be recorded, and assessment of anthropometric and biochemical parameters, fecal calprotectin, inflammatory cytokines, stool microbiome, and its transcriptomic, and metabolomic, urine and saliva metabolomics, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), anxiety, and disease severity will be done at baseline and after 8 weeks. Fecal calprotectin, C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and disease severity will also be evaluated at 4th week. Moreover, HRQoL and anxiety will also be examined after 6 and 12 months.

02

Conditions studied

  • Ulcerative Colitis

Keywords

  • saffron
  • Ulcerative Colitis
  • inflammatory bowel disease
  • randomized double-blind clinical trial
03

In context

Colitis, Ulcerative

1,853 studies on the registry are indexed under Colitis, Ulcerative; 472 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 60 is below the median of 70 across 1,236 interventional studies indexed under Colitis, Ulcerative.

Browse Colitis, Ulcerative studies →

Lead sponsor

Shiraz University of Medical Sciences is the lead sponsor of 130 studies on the registry; 6 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 80 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  1. Male or female patients between 18-80 years' old
  2. Patients who have received a diagnosis of UC at least 3 months prior to screening. The diagnosis of UC must be confirmed by endoscopic and histologic evidence.
  3. Patients with the ability to give written and to be compliant with the schedule of intervention and assessments
  4. Patients with mild (3-5) or moderate (6-11) UC, according to the Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Pregnant patients or those planning pregnancy
  2. Patients receiving agents for diseases other than UC
  3. Patients with confirmed cancer, dysplasia, , and rheumatology diseases
  4. Patients who had surgery for UC treatment
  5. Individuals with liver disease or abnormal liver enzymes and function tests (e.g. total , (AST) or alanine aminotransferase (ALT)) at the screening visit
  6. Patients who have any condition affecting oral drug absorption.
  7. Subjects with known active or untreated GI infections including C.diff, CMV, HSV,
  8. Subjects with clinical features of CD; history of CD (Crohns colitis, or Ileo-colitis), clinical signs of fulminant colitis, toxic megacolon, or Microscopic Colitis, indeterminate Colitis, infectious Colitis, or ischemic colitis
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(6)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Immunosuppression

A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.

Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.

Autoimmune disease

A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.

Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.

Bilirubin

A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.

Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.

ALT and AST (liver enzymes)

Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.

Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

05

Study design

Phase
Phase 2
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Double (Participant, Investigator)
Enrollment
60 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Mild UC-Saffron 100

    Mild UC patients, receiving 100 milligram (mg)/day saffron for 8 weeks (50 mg two times (BID)), n=10

    Drug: Saffron 100

  • Experimental
    Moderate UC-Saffron 100

    Moderate UC patients, receiving100 mg/day saffron for 8 weeks (50 mg BID), n=10

    Drug: Saffron 100

  • Experimental
    Mild UC-Saffron 50

    Mild UC patients, receiving 50 mg/day saffron for 8 weeks (25 mg BID), n=10

    Drug: Saffron 50

  • Experimental
    Moderate UC-Saffron 50

    Moderate UC patients, receiving 50 mg/day saffron for 8 weeks (25 mg BID), n=10

    Drug: Saffron 50

  • Placebo comparator
    Mild UC-placebo

    Mild UC patients, receiving 2 tablets of placebo for 8 weeks, n=10

    Drug: Placebo

  • Placebo comparator
    Moderate UC-placebo

    Moderate UC patients, receiving 2 tablets of placebo for 8 weeks, n=10

    Drug: Placebo

Interventions

  • DrugSaffron 100

    to Mild and Moderate UC patients

  • DrugSaffron 50

    to Mild and Moderate UC patients

  • DrugPlacebo

    to Mild and Moderate UC patients

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Changes in clinical response

    Changes in clinical response will be assessed by "Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index", which has a total score between 0 to 19. Higher scores are interpreted to higher disease activity (worse outcome).

    Time frame: 4 and 8 weeks

  2. Changes in the fecal calprotectin level

    Time frame: 4 and 8 weeks

  3. Changes in the serum levels of CRP

    Time frame: 4 and 8 weeks

  4. Changes in the serum levels of ESR

    Time frame: 4 and 8 weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. Changes in the serum anti-inflammatory and pro-inflammatory markers

    IL-1, IL-6, IL-10, IL-13RA2, IL18, IL17, TREM1, TNF- α, TNFR2, and oncostatin M (pg/ml)

    Time frame: 8 week

  2. Changes in the Health-related quality of life (HRQoL )

    Changes in HRQoL will be assessed by a questionnaire, which has a total score between 9 to 63. Higher scores are interpreted to a higher quality of life (better outcome).

    Time frame: 8, 24, and 48 weeks

  3. Changes in the stool microbiome and transcriptome

    Stool samples will be collected and after RNA extraction, reverse transcriptase qPCR will be performed. Small RNA sequencing libraries will also be constructed and16S rRNA gene analysis will be conducted.

    Time frame: 8 week

  4. Safety assessment (Incidence of Treatment-Emergent Adverse Events)

    Any adverse events such as Gastrointestinal disorders, Psychiatric disorders, Nervous system disorders, and Immune system disorders will be assessed by the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events Questionnaire.

    Time frame: 8 week

  5. Changes in the anxiety

    Changes in anxiety will be assessed by Beck questionnaire, which has a total score between 0 to 63. Higher scores are interpreted to higher anxiety (worse outcome).

    Time frame: 8, 24, and 48 weeks

  6. Changes in the metabolomic profile of urine, stool, and saliva

    Nuclear magnetic resonance will be used for assessment of the metabolomic profile of urine, stool, and saliva

    Time frame: 8 weeks

07

Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

08

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Start is estimated for May 2023; primary completion for Feb 2025, 21 months later.

Of 44 non-industry phase 2 interventional studies under Colitis, Ulcerative, half reached primary completion within 43 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 28 and three quarters within 62. This study's planned 21 months is below that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 153 studies reached it within 28 months; a quarter within 22 and three quarters within 43.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Oct 21, 2021
First posted
Nov 11, 2021
StartEst.
May 2023
Primary completionEst.
Feb 2025
CompletionEst.
Aug 2025
Last update
May 11, 2022
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on May 11, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05117749
Responsible party
Ali Reza Safarpour (Manager in chief of gastroenterohepatology research center, Assistant Professor, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences) — Principal investigator
First posted
Nov 11, 2021
Start date
May 2023 (estimated)
Primary completion
Feb 2025 (estimated)
Completion
Aug 2025 (estimated)
Last update
May 11, 2022

Study contacts

Ali Reza Safarpour, MD., Ph.D.
Contact
safarpourar@gmail.com
+98-7136281442

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in May 2022. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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