Table 2.

Human studies assessing mastic’s effects.

Study	Design	Effect
Kaliora et al. [10]	10 pts with active CD and 8 healthy controls 2.2 g of mastic daily for 4 weeks	-Decrease in CD activity index -decrease in IL-6 and CRP -no effect in plasma TNF-a
Kaliora et al. [11]	10 pts with active CD and 8 healthy controls 2.2 g of mastic daily, 4 weeks	-Reduction of TNF-a secretion by mononuclear cells -increase in macrophage migration inhibitory factor
Papada et al. [12,13]	60 pts with IBD randomized to either 2.8 g of mastic daily for 3 months or placebo	-Improvement in IBDQ -Decrease in oxLDL -Decrease in plasma cysteine and faecal lysozyme
Papada et al. [14]	68 pts with IBD randomized to either 2.8 g of mastic daily for 6 months or placebo	-No impact on serum IL-6, faecal calprotectin and faecal lactoferrin
Amerikanou et al. [15]	129 pts with IBD—68 randomized to mastic group (2.8 g daily for 6 months for pts in remission and for 3 months for pts in relapse) and 61 to placebo	-Increase in IL-17A
Dabos et al. [16]	148 pts with functional dyspepsia randomized to either mastic 350 mg tid or placebo for 3 weeks	-Significant improvement of symptoms -(stomach pain in general, stomach pain when anxious, dull ache in the upper abdomen and heartburn)
Kanoni et al. [17]	98 patients with obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) and NAFLD and randomized to either mastic 2.1 g/day or placebo for 6 months	-Improvement in total antioxidant status of NAFLD pts -interaction of mastic with cytokines and antioxidant biomarkers implicated in NAFLD pathogenesis
Moudi et al. [18]	147 postpartum women randomized to topical application of 15 g mastic for 3 days on episiotomy wound or to placebo	-Higher healing rates of episiotomy wound -no effect on episiotomy pain
Triantafyllou et al. [19]	133 subjects were randomized to either 5 g mastic powder (high dose) or mastic solution for 18 months	-Decrease in serum total cholesterol, LDL, total lipoprotein (a), apolipoprotein A-1, apolipoprotein B, SGOT, SGPT and γ-GT levels
Kartalis et al. [20]	156 subjects received different doses of mastic for 8 weeks	-Reduction in TC in subjects receiving crude mastic 1 g/day (highest dose) -no effect on LDL, HDL, triglycerides, uric acid and CRP
Kontogiannis et al. [21]	27 subject (13 hypertensive) randomized to receive one dose of 2.8 g mastic	-Acute decrease in peripheral and aortic SBP in hypertensive pts -no changes in normotensive pts
Kottakis et al. [22]	5 pts with H. Pylori infection and 3 controls treated with 1 g of mastic daily for 2 months	-Mastic’s arabinogalactan proteins inhibit neutrophil activation in the presence of H. Pylori neutrophil activating protein
Dabos et al. [23]	52 pts with H. Pylori randomized to receive either 350 mg tid of mastic for 14 days (Group A), or 1.05 g tid of mastic (Group B) for 14 days, or pantoprazole 20 mg bd plus mastic 350 mg tid for 14 days (Group C) or pantoprazole 20 mg bd plus amoxicillin 1 g bd plus clarithromycin 500 mg bd for 10 days (Group D)	-Eradication of H. pylori was confirmed in 4/13 pts in Group A, in 5/13 in Group B, in 0/13 in Group C and in 10/13 in Group D
Bebb et al. [24]	8 pts with H. Pylori 1 g mastic four times daily for 14 days	-No effect on H. Pylori status

Pts: patients; CD: Crohn’s disease; IL-6: interleukin-6; CRP: C-reactive protein; TNF-a: tumor necrosis factor-alpha; IBD: inflammatory bowel disease; IBDQ: IBD questionnaire; oxLDL: oxidized LDL; TC: total cholesterol; SBP: systolic blood pressure; tid: three times a day; bd: twice daily; NAFLD: non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.