A brief review on drugs used in relieving joint pain in Iranian traditional and conventional medicine

Joint pain is one of the most common causes of patient’s referral to health centers. There have been several reasons for joint pain such as degenerative changes in cartilage and bones, loss of articular cartilage and inflammations of cartilage external structures such as ligaments, joint capsules and tendons. Although drug and non-drug methods of treatment in conventional medicine were effective in temporary relief of pain and local symptoms but the results are not satisfactory for patients and physicians. Common medical treatments include steroidal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, immunosuppressive drugs and cartilage repairing agents. Traditional view about the etiology and treatments of joint pain is somewhat different with conventional medicine. In this review, an overview of the most important analgesic plants for chronic arthritis pain relief in Iranian traditional medicine literatures were extracted and ranked.
According to the aim of the study which was the investigation of plants in relieving joint pain in Iranian traditional medicine, searching by keyword of relieving joint pain in the electronic version of five main resources was performed. The references were consisting of Qanun fi al-Teb, Ekhtiarate Badiee, Tohfeh Hakim Momen, Al Havi and Makhzan-ol-Advieh. .All medications with joint pain relief effect were individually extracted. Due to their importance and potency; they were scored 1 to 5. Total scores of each plant were calculated and ranked based on above mentioned resources.
Herbs with analgesic and humor reduction effects that gained the highest scores are Anethum graveolens, Ferula assa-foetida, Dorema ammoniacum, Citrullus colocynthis, Ruta graveolens, Zingiber zerumbet and Convolvulus scammonia, respectively.
Discussion & Usually, arthralgia is associated with local humor accumulation in joints. Therefore reduction of these abnormal humors in joints with analgesic and reductive properties of herbs may lead to relieving arthralgia. Based on the Iranian traditional medicine resources, systemic therapy is the first step in dealing with a patient with joint pain but for treating or relieving pain faster, topical pain reliever drugs can be used. These claims must be evaluated by clinical trials.