Actazin® green kiwifruit powder consumption at 600 mg per day for 28 days improves stool form and relieves occasional constipation in healthy individuals: A randomized controlled trial

Constipation is a global issue which impacts quality of life. Kiwifruit promote laxation without the urgency induced by therapeutic laxatives. Actazin® is a skinless, seedless, cold-processed green kiwifruit powder previously shown to improve laxation at 2400 mg daily dosages. Here we investigated the laxation support provided by a 600 mg daily dosage of Actazin.

A randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled parallel study for 28 days across four North American sites (NCT03462199) enrolled 85 participants with non-pathological constipation who had ≤3 complete spontaneous bowel movements (CSBM) per week. Participants consuming Actazin reported improved Bristol stool form scores (BSFS) over placebo (p < 0.05), improving the normality of stool form. Both Actazin and placebo showed improvements of >1 CSBM per week over baseline (p < 0.05). Actazin was safe and well tolerated by participants and resulted in changes (p < 0.05) in the relative abundance of fecal bacterial taxa consistent with consumption of kiwifruit cell wall components.

This study demonstrated that once daily supplementation of 600 mg Actazin green kiwifruit powder resulted in clinically significant improvements in stool form and improved participant bowel habits in healthy individuals with occasional constipation. To the best of our knowledge this is the first recorded observation of this BSFS improvement over placebo by a kiwifruit product.