title: Topical Allium ampeloprasum subsp Iranicum (Leek) extract cream in patients with symptomatic hemorrhoids: a pilot randomized and controlled clinical trial.
abstract: Allium ampeloprasum subsp iranicum (Leek) has been traditionally used in antihemorrhoidal topical herbal formulations. This study aimed to evaluate its safety and efficacy in a pilot randomized controlled clinical trial. Twenty patients with symptomatic hemorrhoids were randomly allocated to receive the topical leek extract cream or standard antihemorrhoid cream for 3 weeks. The patients were evaluated before and after the intervention in terms of pain, defecation discomfort, bleeding severity, anal itching severity, and reported adverse events. A significant decrease was observed in the grade of bleeding severity and defecation discomfort in both the leek and antihemorrhoid cream groups after the intervention, while no significant change was observed in pain scores. There was no significant difference between the leek and antihemorrhoid cream groups with regard to mean changes in outcome measures. This pilot study showed that the topical use of leek cream can be as effective as a standard antihemorrhoid cream.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Traditional Medicine and History of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran Department of Traditional Persian Medicine, School of Traditional Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyed Hamdollah
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Mosavat
authors.affiliation: Colorectal Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran Leila_Ghahramani@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ghahramani
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sobhani
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Bushehr University of Medical Sciences, Bushehr, Iran.
authors.forename: Ehsan Rahmanian
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Haghighi
authors.affiliation: Essence of Parsiyan Wisdom Institute, Traditional Medicine and Medicinal Plant Incubator, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Mojtaba
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heydari
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000490:Allium / Q000737:chemistry*; D005260:Female; D006484:Hemorrhoids / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D008875:Middle Aged; D008517:Phytotherapy; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D010936:Plant Extracts
keywords: allium ampeloprasum; hemorrhoids; herbal medicine; traditional Persian medicine