Rosemary extract eases fibromyalgia-like pain in animal study
Siles-Guevara J, González-Trujano ME, Ovalle-Magallanes B, Déciga-Campos M.
Medicinal Plants
The rosemary bush on your windowsill or in your herb bed contains compounds now shown to calm the kind of nerve-pain sensitivity that current fibromyalgia drugs struggle to treat.
Scientists gave rats a drug that mimics fibromyalgia symptoms, like being overly sensitive to touch and pain, and then tested different rosemary extracts to see if they could help. An alcohol-based rosemary extract worked best, easing that heightened pain response about as well as a standard nerve-pain medication. Three specific plant compounds, hesperidin, caffeic acid, and limonene, seem to be doing much of the work.
Key Findings
All four rosemary extract types (essential oil, hexane, ethanolic, aqueous) reduced pain hypersensitivity in a rat model of fibromyalgia induced by reserpine
The ethanolic (alcohol-based) extract showed the strongest antihyperalgesic and antiallodynic effects among the four tested
Individual metabolites hesperidin, caffeic acid, and limonene were each partially responsible for the pain-relieving effects, tested at doses of 10-300 mg/kg
chevron_right Technical Summary
Rosemary extracts, especially an alcohol-based one, significantly reduced pain sensitivity in rats with a fibromyalgia-like condition, working as well as a common nerve-pain drug. Compounds like hesperidin, caffeic acid, and limonene appear to drive the effect.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Antihyperalgesic and antiallodynic effects of Salvia rosmarinus Spenn. extracts and some of their bioactive metabolites in a murine fibromyalgia pain model.
<h4>Ethnopharmacological relevance</h4>Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic nociplastic pain syndrome characterized by widespread pain, allodynia, and hyperalgesia. Current pharmacological treatments hav...
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Salvia rosmarinus, synonym Rosmarinus officinalis, commonly known as rosemary, is a shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and purple or sometimes white, pink, or blue flowers. It is a member of the mint family, Lamiaceae.