Control of pain with topical plant medicines

Pain is normally treated with oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents and opioids. These drugs are dangerous and are responsible for many hospitalizations and deaths. It is much safer to use topical preparations made from plants to treat pain, even severe pain. Topical preparations must contain c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine
Main Authors: James David Adams Jr., Xiaogang Wang
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2221-1691(15)30342-7
https://doaj.org/article/e9f0f4ad97f545d2bdaed68ef50dea47
Description
Summary:Pain is normally treated with oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents and opioids. These drugs are dangerous and are responsible for many hospitalizations and deaths. It is much safer to use topical preparations made from plants to treat pain, even severe pain. Topical preparations must contain compounds that penetrate the skin, inhibit pain receptors such as transient receptor potential cation channels and cyclooxygenase-2, to relieve pain. Inhibition of pain in the skin disrupts the pain cycle and avoids exposure of internal organs to large amounts of toxic compounds. Use of topical pain relievers has the potential to save many lives, decrease medical costs and improve therapy.