Poisonous Shrub Offers Natural Pain Relief

The study’s findings were reported in the Volume 6, Number 2, 2011, issue of the International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology. Drs. Omeh Yusuf and Ezeja Maxwell of the Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture (Umudike, Nigeria) explained how J. curcas, also known as the “physic nut,” is a perennial shrub that grows to 5 meters in height and belongs to the Euphobiaceace family. It is native to Central America but grows widely in other tropical and subtropical countries of Africa and Asia.

The plant’s fruit is combined with the stem bark of Cochlospermum planchonii in Nigerian medicine for treating diabetes mellitus and is also used traditionally as a painkiller. Other medicinal activities have been reported. The plant’s seeds have been used for making soap, candles, detergents, lubricants, and dyes and the seed oil is used in biodiesel.

The researchers extracted what they believed to be the physiologically active components of the leaves of J. curcas using methanol as solvent. They compared the effects of this extract at 100 mg/kg, 200 mg/kg, and 400 mg/kg of body mass, against 400 mg/kg of acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) in standard laboratory animal tests for assessing the strength of painkillers.

The researchers discovered that 100 mg/kg was an inadequate dose, however, 200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg doses produced analgesia comparable to aspirin, validating the use of the plant for pain relief in traditional medicine. The scientists suspect that the extract may be acting through both peripheral and central pain processes. Dr. Yusuf and Maxwell are now conducting more research on isolating and characterizing the active ingredient in the extract and in determining the precise mode of action.

The search for novel analgesic drugs that have a different side-effect profile and lack the tolerance and addiction problems associated with morphine and other opiates is a significant avenue of research in drug discovery science. Very few leads from traditional and herbal medicine are effective in generating a new product, but it should be noted, according to the investigators, that aspirin and morphine themselves were both originally derived from natural sources.

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Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture