Medical
botanicals may have anti-inflammatory and pain-alleviating
properties
Experimental evidence
is accumulating to suggest that medicinal botanicals
have anti-inflammatory and pain-alleviating properties
and hold promise for treatment of endometriosis.
The authors of this systematic review
of clinical and experimental data on the use of medicinal
herbs in the treatment of endometriosis suggest that
medical botanicals may have anti-inflammatory and pain-alleviating
properties.
Although there is a general lack of
evidence from clinical studies on the potential efficacy
of medicinal herbs for the treatment of endometriosis-associated
symptoms, their review highlights the anti-inflammatory
and pain-alleviating mechanisms of action of herbal
remedies.
Medicinal herbs and their active components exhibit
cytokine-suppressive, COX-2-inhibiting, antioxidant,
sedative and pain-alleviating properties. Each of these
mechanisms of action would be predicted to have salutary
effects in endometriosis.
A potential benefit of herbal therapy is the likelihood
of synergistic interactions within individual or combinations
of plants. In this sense, phytotherapies may be analogous
to nutraceuticals or whole food nutrition. The authors
encourage the development of herbal analogues and establishment
of special, simplified registration procedures for certain
medicinal products, particularly herbal derivates with
a long tradition of safe use.
The authors conclude that a better
understanding of the mechanisms of action, toxicity
and herb-herb and herb-drug interactions permits the
optimisation of design and execution of complementary
alternative medicine trials for endometriosis-associated
pain.
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