College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat 123, Oman.
GKT School of Medicine, King's College London, Great Maze Pond, London SE1 1UL, UK.
Biomolecules. 2023 Jan 9;13(1):138. doi: 10.3390/biom13010138.
Gum arabic (GA) is a natural product commonly used as a household remedy for treating various diseases in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. Despite its claimed benefits, there has been a lack of research on the findings of current clinical trials (CTs) that investigated its efficacy in the treatment of various medical diseases. The aim of this systematic review was to study CTs which focused on GA and its possible use in the management of various medical diseases. A search of the extant literature was performed in the PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane databases to retrieve CTs focusing on evidence-based clinical indications. The databases were searched using the keywords ("Gum Arabic" OR "" OR "" OR "Gum Acacia" OR "Acacia Arabica") AND ("Clinical Trial" OR "Randomized Controlled Trial" OR "Randomized Clinical Trial"). While performing the systematic review, data were obtained on the following parameters: title, authors, date of publication, study design, study aim, sample size, type of intervention used, targeted medical diseases, and main findings. Twenty-nine papers were included in this systematic review. The results showed that ingestion of GA altered lipid profiles, renal profiles, plaque, gingival scores, biochemical parameters, blood pressure, inflammatory markers, and adiposity. GA exhibited anti-inflammatory, prebiotic, and antibacterial properties. GA has been successfully used to treat sickle cell anemia, rheumatoid arthritis, metabolic disorders, periodontitis, gastrointestinal conditions, and kidney diseases. Herein, we discuss GA with respect to the underlying mechanisms involved in each medical disease, thereby justifying GA's future role as a therapeutic agent.
阿拉伯胶（GA）是一种天然产物，在撒哈拉以南非洲地区，通常被用作治疗各种疾病的家庭疗法。尽管有其声称的益处，但缺乏对当前临床试验（CT）研究结果的研究，这些研究调查了其在治疗各种医学疾病中的疗效。本系统评价的目的是研究专注于 GA 及其在治疗各种医学疾病中的潜在用途的 CT。在 PubMed、Scopus 和 Cochrane 数据库中进行了现有文献的搜索，以检索专注于循证临床适应症的 CT。使用关键词（“阿拉伯胶”或“”或“”或“阿拉伯树胶”或“阿拉伯金合欢”）和（“临床试验”或“随机对照试验”或“随机临床试验”）在数据库中搜索 CT。在进行系统评价时，获得了以下参数的数据：标题、作者、出版日期、研究设计、研究目的、样本量、使用的干预类型、针对的医学疾病以及主要发现。本系统评价共纳入 29 篇论文。结果表明，摄入 GA 会改变脂质谱、肾脏谱、斑块、牙龈评分、生化参数、血压、炎症标志物和肥胖症。GA 具有抗炎、益生元和抗菌特性。GA 已成功用于治疗镰状细胞贫血、类风湿性关节炎、代谢紊乱、牙周炎、胃肠道疾病和肾脏疾病。在此，我们根据每种医学疾病中涉及的潜在机制讨论 GA，从而证明 GA 作为治疗剂的未来作用。
