Efficacy of Turmeric for Treatment of Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Experimental Animal Model Studies

The objective of this systematic review was to determine the efficacy of using turmeric (Curcuma longa) in veterinary patients for control of osteoarthritis (OA). The literature search was conducted using three electronic databases and a university library. Keywords searched included “turmeric”, “curcumin” and “osteoarthritis”. There were 24 experimental model studies in laboratory species that used turmeric as a treatment for OA and met inclusion criteria. These studies compared a turmeric/curcumin treated group to placebo (or no treatment) control group. The meta-analysis based on the reported statistical significance (p-values) concluded an overall p-value of 3.0×10-28, which demonstrated turmeric/curcumin was highly effective in improving OA in these studies for the parameters measured. Meta-analysis using random-effects model on the four most reported outcome measurements (TNF-α, IL-1β, NF-kβ, MMG) also concluded effectiveness of turmeric/curcumin in improving OA conditions (all p-values < 0.001). The positive results in animal model studies from this systematic review and meta-analysis suggest that turmeric/curcumin may be of benefit for companion animals with OA, and supports further investigation of its use as part of food therapy and/or herbal formulations with randomized controlled clinical studies.