Intense or harmful stimuli cause pain, an unpleasant sensation, sensory, emotional, multidimensional, often also associated with tissue damage that, however, warns us that something is wrong with our body and asks us to take action.
Over the centuries, many remedies for pain have been used, many forms of therapy. Medicinal plants were the first to be used to mitigate pain: from Papaver somniferum is extracted morphine, considered the prototype of opioid analgesics, which however has rather serious side effects.
From Alliaceae, Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Myrtaceae, Poaceae and Rutaceae it is possible to extract essential oils of medicinal value and suitable for industrial production.
These essential oils have many pharmacological properties: antitumor, anxiolytic, hypnotic, anticonvulsant.
There are 43 natural bioactive ingredients that have demonstrated analgesic properties, among which 62.8% were monoterpenes, 18.6% sesquiterpenes and other constituents as described in this study and including: linalool, menthol, eugenol, limonene, α-Santalol which is a sesquiterpenoid isolated from the root of Saussurea (Santelum album L.) an "oriental incense" used for meditation and sedation. and others (2).
There is also a whole series of chemical compounds including.
- paracetamol, a non-steroidal drug, which is almost unanimously considered to have no anti-inflammatory activity and does not produce gastrointestinal damage or unpleasant cardiorenal effects (3).
- ibuprofen with side effects, associated mild adverse events. Minimal renal effects. Characteristics described in this study whose authors also believe that ibuprofen possesses a good safety profile and has provided evidence of efficacy for mild to moderate pain of various origins in children (4).
For more acute pain, opioids are used but can cause dependence, while most analgesics are associated with serious side effects, such as FANS (Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs) can cause gastrointestinal disorders (5).
References_____________________________________________________________________
(1) Almeida RN, Navarro DS, Barbosa-Filho JM. Plants with central analgesic activity. Phytomedicine. 2001 Jul;8(4):310-22. doi: 10.1078/0944-7113-00050.
(2) de Sousa DP. Analgesic-like activity of essential oils constituents. Molecules. 2011 Mar 7;16(3):2233-52. doi: 10.3390/molecules16032233.
(3) Bertolini A, Ferrari A, Ottani A, Guerzoni S, Tacchi R, Leone S. Paracetamol: new vistas of an old drug. CNS Drug Rev. 2006 Fall-Winter;12(3-4):250-75. doi: 10.1111/j.1527-3458.2006.00250.x.
(4) Barbagallo M, Sacerdote P. Ibuprofen in the treatment of children's inflammatory pain: a clinical and pharmacological overview. Minerva Pediatr. 2019 Feb;71(1):82-99. doi: 10.23736/S0026-4946.18.05453-1.
(5) Ruchita, Sucheta, Nanda S, Pathak D. Analgesic Prodrugs for Combating their Side-Effects: Rational Approach. Curr Drug Deliv. 2017;14(1):16-26. doi: 10.2174/1567201813666160504100705.
