Anti-rheumatic remedies

Sassafras oil, sassafras bark, and safrole (80% of the oil) are prohibited by the FDA as food additives and flavorings because of their carcinogenic properties. A safrole-free extract is available on the market, but studies have shown that the product still produces tumors in rats (Tyler, 1993). Nevertheless, sassafras is touted in herbal home remedy books and continues to be available in health food stores. Sassafras still enjoys a reputation as a spring tonic, stimulant, anti spasmodic, blood purifier, and sudorific (sweat producer), and as a cure for rheumatism, skin diseases, syphilis, typhus, and dropsy (congestive heart failure) (Tyler, 1993). Unfortunately, sassafras seems to be nothing more than a folk medicine for more than 200 yr it has been known to be without therapeutic utility (Tyler, 1994). 

Preparations from Aconitum plants have been used in traditional Chinese medicine as cardiotonics, febrifuges, sedatives, and antirheumatics [22]. They have also been used in traditional medicine of some ex-USSR countries for the treatment of cancer, rheumatism, etc. [18, 23]. Aconitum plants were introduced in the medicine of European countries in the nineteenth century. Leaves and roots of Aconitum and aconitine powder were included in the British Pharmaceutical Codex (01911) [24], French Pharmacopoeia (9th edition) [25], and USSR Pharmacopoeia (8th edition) [26] and were applied to relieve neuralgic pain, especially in the face, to allay the pain of sciatica and acute rheumatism. Because of extreme toxicity, aconitine was replaced later by less-toxic anti-inflammatory and analgesic agents in European countries presently, the use of Aconitum plants is limited to the homeopathic medicine [27, 28]. On the contrary, in many Asiatic countries, aconitine-containing plants still remain one of the most popular remedies, and more and more new, naturally occurring or semisynthetic molecules from Aconitum species are introduced in medical use. Eor example, lappaconitine found in several Aconitum species, bulleyaconitine isolated from A. bulleyanum, and crassicauline A isolated from A. crassicaule were introduced in the official Chinese medicine for the treatment of chronic pain, rheumatoid arthritis, and for local anesthesia [29, 30]. 

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