The California-based company said its ingredient also boosted comfort and mobility by up to fifty percent. The results were obtained in a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial with eighty overweight and normal weight subjects.
Citrofen is a blend of Next's patented orange peel extract and a proprietary Phellodendron tree bark extract. According to Next, the clinical trial concluded Citrofen has multiple benefits for people with knee osteoarthritis, including significant loss of weight.
The Arthritis Foundation holds that one in three Americans - almost 66 million individuals - suffer from daily joint discomfort, representing a massive opportunity for companies that can provide them with safe respite.
The joint health category has been a busy place in the last couple of years, since the Vioxx scandal caused consumers to cast about for side-effect-free natural alternatives to prescription medicines. Glucosamine and chondroitin have been two of the biggest players in this category.
The trial used the Lequesne Algofunctional Index (LAI) - a measurement which gages participant's comfort, stiffness and mobility by examining C-Reactive Protein (CRP) as an indicator of inflammation.
Citrofen was said to have shown a significant ( p<0.001) reduction in both the LAI (46.1 percent reduction in the overweight group and 31.9 percent reduction in the normal weight group) and the CRP concentration (48.9 percent reduction in the overweight group and 44.3 percent reduction in the normal weight group) over the eight-week trial period.
In addition, the overweight subjects with knee osteoarthritis significantly lowered their weight and Body Mass Index (5.1 percent, p<0.001) while on Citrofen. Normal weight subjects did not lose weight.
NutraIngredients-USA.com has not seen the study results in full. In its comminication, Next Pharmaceuticals has not indicated whether the study has been published or submitted for publication in a peer reviewed journal.