Effect of CYSTUS052® and green tea on subjective symptoms in patients with infection of the upper respiratory tract

Examples of medicinal herbs that have been perpetuated along several generations based simply on a folk tradition are Cistus and green tea. The principal active constituents of the genus Cistus and green tea are polyphenolic compounds. Polyphenols exhibit a wide range of antibacterial, antifungal and antiinflammatory effects. The present work aimed to investigate the clinical effect of a Cistus extract (CYSTUS052^®) in comparison with green tea on 300 patients with infections of the upper respiratory tract. Due to the lack of clinical study data on their efficacy in patients, this is a report of the findings of our study on the clinical efficacy of CYSTUS052^® in patients with the upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs). This study observed a total of 300 patients (277 completers) treated with CYSTUS052^® given in lozenges compared with treatment with an extract of green tea. The patients scored the subjective severity of target symptoms using a predefined scale. The score of subjective symptoms decreased over the course of treatment with CYSTUS052^®, whereas treatment with green tea resulted in a less significant decrease of symptoms. CYSTUS052^® therefore proved to be an effective adjuvant for the treatment of respiratory infections. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.