Curcumin for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
For ulcerative colitis, oral curcumin shows preliminary but consistent benefit as an add-on to standard mesalamine therapy, roughly doubling the odds of clinical remission. For Crohn's disease, the evidence does not show it works, so it should never replace prescribed IBD medication.
Why this grade7-layer evidence engine
The grade reflects a sharp split by IBD subtype. Three meta-analyses of adjunctive curcumin in ulcerative colitis converge on a real signal for clinical remission added to 5-ASA: relative risks of about 2.0 to 2.3 (PMID 35091013, 39612780, 40196017), anchored by the Lang 2015 trial showing remission of 53.8% vs 0% (PMID 25724700). The AGA conditionally suggests curcumin as an add-on for mild-to-moderate UC, and Mayo and Cleveland Clinic agree it may reduce inflammation.
It stays at preliminary (not strong) because the evidence base is thin and uneven. Heterogeneity is high (I2=80% in PMID 39612780), endoscopic remission generally fell short of significance even where symptoms improved, and the anchor trial's confidence interval is enormous (OR 42, 95% CI 2.3-760, n=50), reflecting small samples and non-standardized doses and formulations.
For Crohn's disease the verdict is clearly negative: the 2025 pooled analysis found no superiority over placebo (PMID 40196017), and the lone positive result is a single small Japanese Theracurmin trial (40% vs 0%, n=30; PMID 32412598). NIH/NCCIH says the evidence is not yet definitive, EFSA rejected curcumin health claims, and regulators flag liver-injury risk with high-bioavailability products, so curcumin is at most a supervised adjunct, not a treatment.
Scoring transparency
All scores computed by a 7-layer evidence engine — fully auditable▸View the full decision path (audit trail)
- compute_raw_score — 加權公式: L2×0.30 + L3×0.25 + L5×0.25 + L11×0.10 + L1×0.10 = 0.649
- tier_from_score — 依分數區間映射至 tier letter
- apply_hec_rules — 高品質 SR/MA 顯示 positive (3 篇 > 0 negative)
- tier_strict_requirement_check — Tier 條件達標，未降階
- detect_disputes — 偵測到 0 個 hard + 0 個 soft dispute
- decide_status — 依 tier + dispute 結果決定 status