Turmeric Powder with Honey Helps Treat Oral Mucositis

Effectiveness of Indian Turmeric Powder with Honey as Complementary Therapy on Oral Mucositis: A Nursing Perspective among Cancer Patients in Mysore

Nurs J India. 7/17/2015

Oral mucositis is a common, debilitating complication of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy, occurring in about 40 percent cases. Mucositis may limit the patient's ability to tolerate chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and nutrition status is compromised. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of Indian turmeric powder with honey as a complementary therapy on treatment induced oral mucositis.

In the study, quasi experimental non-equivalent control group pre test post-test design was used and non-probability purposive sampling technique was adopted to select 60 cancer patients with treatment induced oral mucositis, 30 each in experimental and control group. The independent 't' value for post-test 2 and 3 (post-test 2: 2.86 for WHO OMAS and 4.58 for MPJ OMAS, post test 2: 5.42 for WHO OMAS and 7.2 for MPJ OMAS; p < 0.05) were significant between experimental and control group.

It is inferred that the application of Indian turmeric and honey on treatment-induced oral mucositis is effective.