Cartilage Protection and Analgesic Activity of a Botanical Composition Comprised of Morus alba, Scutellaria baicalensis, and Acacia catechu.

Cartilage Protection and Analgesic Activity of a Botanical Composition Comprised of Morus alba, Scutellaria baicalensis, and Acacia catechu. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2017;2017:7059068 Authors: Yimam M, Horm T, Wright L, Jiao P, Hong M, Brownell L, Jia Q Abstract Although there have been augmented advances in drug discovery, current OA management is inadequate due to the lack of successful therapies proven to be effective in modifying disease progression. For some, the risk outweighs the benefit. As a result, there is a desperate need for safe and efficacious natural alternatives. Here we evaluated a composition from Morus alba, Scutellaria baicalensis, and Acacia catechu in maintaining joint structural integrity and alleviating OA associated symptoms in monoiodoacetate- (MIA-) induced rat OA disease model. Study lasted for 6 weeks. 59.6%, 64.6%, 70.7%, 69.9%, and 70.3% reductions in pain sensitivity were observed for rats treated with the composition from week 1 to week 5, respectively. Statistically significant improvements in articular cartilage matrix integrity (maintained at 57.1% versus MIA + vehicle treated rats) were shown from the modified total Mankin score for animals treated with the composition. The composition showed a statistically significant reduction in uCTX-II level (54.1% reductions). The merit of combining these botanicals was also demonstrated in their synergistic analgesic activity. Therefore, the sta...
Source: Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine - Category: Complementary Medicine Tags: Evid Based Complement Alternat Med Source Type: research