BACKGROUND Osteoarthritis (OA) is a highly prevalent musculoskeletal disorder. Conventional treatment (i.e., the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs-NSAIDs) is associated with well-documented adverse effects. Devil's Claw (Harpagophytum procumbens) a traditional South African herbal remedy used for rheumatic conditions, may be a safer treatment option. To date, 14 clinical trials have a...

Address: 1Department of Health Policy Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Canada, 2Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, Academics, Toronto, Canada, 3Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany, 4Herbal Medicines Research and Education Center, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia and 5Center ...

Devil's Claw (Harpagophytum procumbens), an herbal product being marketed in Canada and in Europe as a home remedy for the relief of arthritic disease, was investigated in healthy humans on eicosanoid production during spontaneously blood clotting. Volunteers took H. procumbens (daily 4 capsules of 500 mg powder containing 3% of total glucoiridoids) for a period of 21 days. The following are th...

Treatment with herbal medicines is very popular in Europe. In order to get information on the evidence of effectiveness of oral herbal medicines in the treatment of pain in the joints or lower back, OVID(MEDLINE), PUBMED and COCHRANE COLLABORATION LIBRARY were searched back to 1985 for systematic reviews. The level of evidence of effectiveness was defined as strong – at least two confirmatory s...

The possible biochemical activities of the acetonic/ethanolic extract of the leaves of Maytenus procumbens (L.M.P), and its isolated compounds were investigated in the present study. In cytotoxicity assay, L.M.P showed IC(50) of 68.79, 51.22, 78.49, 76.59, and 76.64μg/ml on Caco-2, HeLa, HT29, NIH3T3, and T47D cells, respectively. Bioassay guided fractionation led to the isolation and identific...