Evaluation of a Persian Natural Topical Medicine Based on Sesame Oil on Mild-to-Moderate Outpatient Coronavirus Disease-19 Patients: A Randomized Triple-Blind Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial

Abstract

Sesame oil (SO) or so-called Tahini has been traditionally used for management of various conditions including burns and wounds and relief of pain, fever, and inflammation n Persian Medicine. It poses anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anti-carcinogenic activities; then it could be used in various inflammatory conditions. A triple-blind randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial was carried out to examine the efficacy of a Persian natural topical medicine based on sesame oil in outpatients suffering mild and moderate coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). The participants were 101 COVID-19 patients who met the inclusion criteria. The participants were allocated randomly to treatment (n = 51) group who received topical Sesame oil formulation five times daily on the chest and back skin for 1 week or the placebo (n = 50) group. The symptoms were examined at admittance and over a follow-up course and the results were compared in the two groups after 3 and 7 days. After three days, fever (7.84 vs. 20.41%, P=0.05), chills (3.92 vs. 16.33%, P=0.03), cough (severe 0 vs. 8.6, intermediate 50.98 vs. 65.31%, P=0.007) and headache (mild 7.84 vs. 30.61, moderate 5.88 vs. 0, P=0.004) had a significant lower prevalence in the treatment group. However, after 7 days, all symptoms had insignificant difference between two groups (P>0.05). No significant adverse reaction reported in both groups. As the results indicated, topical formulation consisting of sesame oil and cow butter, rubbing on the chest and back of the mild-to-moderate COVID-19 patients five times daily could significantly improve cough, fever, chills and headache, in 3 days. But it could not be effective on final outcome of the patients. More works covering a larger sample size are needed.