Abstract
Harpagophytum procumbens, also known as Devil’s Claw, has historically been used to treat a wide range of conditions, including pain and arthritis. The study was designed to investigate whether H. procumbens extracts exhibit analgesic effects in plantar incision and spared nerve injury (SNI) rats. The whole procedure was performed on male SD rats. To evaluate pain-related behavior, we performed the mechanical withdrawal threshold (MWT) test measured by von Frey filaments. Pain-related behavior was also determined through analysis of ultrasonic vocalization (USVs). The results of experiments showed MWT values of the group that was treated with 300 mg/kg H. procumbens extract increased significantly; on the contrary, the number of 22–27 kHz USVs of the treated group was reduced at 6 h and 24 h after plantar incision operation. After 21 days of continuous treatment with H. procumbens extracts at 300 mg/kg, the treated group showed significantly alleviated SNI-induced hypersensitivity responses by MWT, compared with the control group. These results suggest that H. procumbens extracts have potential analgesic effects in the case of acute postoperative pain and chronic neuropathic pain in rats.
Highlights
IntroductionAnalgesics relieve pain by acting on the central nervous system or peripheral pain mechanisms, without significantly altering consciousness [1]
Pain is a common symptom but very distressing feature of many diseases
Postoperative pain in humans can be mimicked by plantar incision in rats [16]
Summary
Analgesics relieve pain by acting on the central nervous system or peripheral pain mechanisms, without significantly altering consciousness [1]. Patients suffering from this kind of pain include those with so-called nociceptive and neuropathic pain, allodynia, and hyperalgesia. No studies have been made of the effect of H. procumbens extracts on surgical incision postoperative pain or neuropathic pain in in vivo models. The present study was designed to investigate whether H. procumbens extracts exhibit anti-nociceptive effects in the postoperative pain through plantar incision model [16] and on the spared nerve injury (SNI) rat model of neuropathic pain [17]. The results have been compared with those of naproxen, a NSAID [19]
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