Efficacy and Safety of Turmeric Dietary Supplementation on Proteinuria in CKD: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of RCT

The beneficial effects of oral turmeric extract on proteinuria levels have been investigated in several human and animal studies. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the significance of this new treatment in CKD patients for the first time. We searched ISI Web of Science, PubMed/Medline, Google Scholar, Scopus, SID, and Magiran until March 2021 to identify human-controlled trials that evaluated the effect of turmeric on proteinuria in chronic kidney disease patients. A total of six trials met the selection criteria and were reviewed in our study and four of them were included in the meta-analysis. In these studies, the results showed not only a significant decrease in the level of proteinuria of the trial groups, who had received curcumin but also a significant change in the level of proteinuria between the trial and control groups (SMD = -0.72, 95% CI: -1.10 to 0.35). The results of this meta-analysis demonstrates that turmeric/curcumin oral supplementation significantly improves urinary protein excretion in patients who suffer from chronic kidney diseases with proteinuria; thus, it can be considered as a potential treatment modality in this population.