A compound from a traditional Chinese treatment could help alleviate pain and reduce inflammation without causing addiction.
A research team looked at the compound dehydrocorybulbine (DHCB), which is derived from the roots of the Corydalis yanhusuo plant, a University of California-Irvine news release reported.
The Corydalis is a "flowering herbal plant." It grows in China, Japan, and Siberia; in traditional medicine it has been used to treat a number of painful conditions such as menstrual cramps, abdominal pain, and chest pain.
Tests on rodents showed the compound effectively reduced "inflammatory pain, which is associated with tissue damage and the infiltration of immune cells, and injury-induced neuropathic pain, which is caused by damage to the nervous system," the news release reported.
The team also noticed the rodents did not build up a tolerance to the substance.
"Today the pharmaceutical industry struggles to find new drugs. Yet for centuries people have used herbal remedies to address myriad health conditions, including pain. Our objective was to identify compounds in these herbal remedies that may help us discover new ways to treat health problems," Olivier Civelli, the Eric L. & Lila D. Nelson Chair in Neuropharmacology, said. "We're excited that this one shows promise as an effective pharmaceutical. It also shows a different way to understand the pain mechanism."
In recent years ancient Chinese medicine has been taken more seriously in Western culture. Joint researchers at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics in China have been working to compile a "herbalome" of all plant compounds that possess "pharmacological properties."
The researchers looked at 10 traditional Chinese medicines known as analgesics. They looked at over 500 compounds in this group, and found only DHCB in corydalis was able to produce a pain-relieving effect of the same effectiveness.
Further testing will need to be conducted on the plant's toxicity and other factors before the research can move forward.
About 50 million Americans suffer from chronic neuropathic pain; the researchers hope this discovery will bring them one step closer to a non-addictive treatment.
