Clinical evidence of dietary supplementation with sesame on cardiovascular risk factors: An updated meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Abstract

The present analysis was to summarize the evidence of the effects of sesame and its derivatives supplementation on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors by performing a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Electronic databases were searched from their inception to July 2020. Two investigators independently assessed articles for inclusion, extracted data, and statistical analysis. The quality of included articles was assessed according to the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Major outcomes were synthesized using a random effect model and presented as weighted mean difference and 95% confidence interval. Heterogeneity, subgroup analyses, sensitivity analysis, meta-regression, and publication bias were also conducted. The GRADE approach was used to evaluate the quality of evidence. Overall, 16 trials involving 908 participants were included for statistical pooling. Compared with the control group, sesame intake significantly decreased the levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, body weight, body mass index, hip circumference, and waist circumference (P < 0.05). These results were stable in sensitivity analysis, and no significant publication bias was detected. Our findings provided evidence that sesame consumption may reduce the risk of CVD by improving blood lipids, blood pressure, and body weight management. Further large-scale, well-designed RCTs are required to confirm these results.

Keywords:

• Blood pressure
• body weight
• CVD
• lipid
• sesame

Authors’ contributions

H. H.: Conception and design of the study, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data, drafted the manuscript, discussed the idea of the meta-analysis; G. Z., Y. C., and R. P.: Completed the database searches and selected, reviewed the articles and extracted the data; D. L.: Conception and design of the study, reviewed and extracted the data, and performed the data analyses, submitted the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Declaration of interest

The authors state that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Traditional Medicine Research Program of Guangdong Province (No. 20181270); by the Social Development Project of Dongguan City under Grant (No. 2016108101021).