Traditional Chinese Medicine Plant Eases Chronic Pain

Sharon Moore January 03, 2014

A plant used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine has been found to address three types of pain: acute, inflammatory, and neuropathic or chronic pain.

Chronic pain is defined as pain that has lasted longer than three to six months. Often, it has unclear causes, which makes it hard for doctors and healthcare professionals to provide suitable treatments for patients.

Now, researchers at University of California, Irvine made the discovery as part of the “herbalome" project – an effort to catalogue all of the chemical components of traditional Chinese medicine. The plant, called Corydalis, which is mainly grown in central eastern China, is ground and boiled in hot vinegar. The concoction is used to treat various types of pain, including back pain and headaches.

The team went on to investigate the compounds in Corydalis which appeared to act like morphine and found the dehydrocorybulbine (DHCB) which is found in the roots of the plant. DHCB however, did not act through the morphine receptor but through other receptors, including the one which binds dopamine. Such finding supports previous research suggesting that the dopamine D2 receptor plays a role in pain sensation.

"Our study reports the discovery of a new natural product that can relieve pain," says lead author Olivier Civelli of the University of California, Irvine. "This analgesic acts in animal assays against the three types of pain that afflict humans, including acute, inflammatory, and neuropathic or chronic pain."

Civelli said there are good medications for acute pain as well as inflammatory pain, but there are no good medications for chronic pain. “DHCB may not be able to relieve strong chronic pain, but may be used for low-level chronic pain." he said. Nevertheless, the researcher notes that further testing for toxicity is needed before doctors should consider prescribing it to patients.

The study was published in the journal Current Biology.

Source of this article:

A Novel Analgesic Isolated from a Traditional Chinese Medicine