Rheumatism remedies

A large number of salts of sahcyhc acid have been prepared and evaluated for therapeutic or other commercial use. Table 7 hsts those most frequently referenced. Sodium sahcylate has analgesic, antiinflammatory, and antipyretic activities and was used extensively in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a remedy, prepared from natural sources, for arthritis and rheumatism. In the 1990s the salt can be obtained directly from Kolbe-Schmitt carboxylation or by the reaction of sahcyhc acid with either aqueous sodium bicarbonate or sodium carbonate. The resulting mixture is heated until effervescence stops the salt is then isolated by filtration and evaporation to dryness at low temperatures. Generally, the solution must be kept slightly acidic so that a white product is obtained if the mixture is basic, a colored product results. The USP product contains 99.5—100.5% NaC H O (anhydrous). The May 1996 price was 8.15/kg (18). 

Antirheumatic. Elder flower and vinegar fomentations can be used topically for painful joints, muscle soreness and stiffness. Elderberry juice is an ancient remedy to help neuralgia, rheumatism, gout and sciatica. Parts used flowers, berries, leaves. 

It is far superior to any other known remedy for the cure of all diseases arising from impurities of the blood, such as Scrofula, Rheumatism, Cancerous Humors, Erysipelas, Canker, Salt Rheum and Skin Disease. ... 

In Asia, this plant is valued as a remedy for fever, rheumatism, gout, and inflammatory illnesses. In China, the roots are used as febrifuges, deobstruents, and carminatives, and are used to assuage muscle pains, thoracic and abdominal inflammations, puerperal fever, and diarrhea. 

In China and Tibet, the plant is held in great esteem. It was believed that the color of the plant was caused by transformed human blood. The root is used to treat rheumatism, jaundice, hemorrhages, and all sorts of exhausting discharges. In Korea, the root is used to treat rheumatism, jaundice and menstrual disorders. In the Philippines, a decoction of roots is drunk as a remedy for urinary disorders. One might have observed the obvious relationship between the red color of the sap and the blood-related medicinal uses of the plant it illustrates the doctrine of signatures of Paracelsus. 

Monoterpenes, 10-carbon-containing terpenoids, are composed of two isoprene units, and found abundantly in plants, e.g. (+)-limonene from lemon oil, and (—)-linalool from rose oil. Many monoterpenes are the constituents of plant volatile oils or essential oils. These compounds are particularly important as flavouring agents in pharmaceutical, confectionery and perfume products. However, a number of monoterpenes show various types of bioactivity and are used in medicinal preparations. For example, camphor is used in liniments against rheumatic pain, menthol is used in ointments and liniments as a remedy against itching, bitter-orange peel is used as an aromatic bitter tonic and as a remedy for poor appetite and thymol and carvacrol are used in bactericidal preparations. 

In 1898, King s American Dispensatory called Cannabis indica one of the most important of our remedies, particularly for marked nervous depression.. .. [I]t has been efficient in delirium tremens, wakefulness in fevers, neuralgia, gout, rheumatism, infantile... 

The decoction of 1 ounce to 1 pint (reduced from 11/2 pints) of water, is administered in wineglassful doses. Its chief importance lies in the treatment of rheumatism, and the root figures frequently in herbal prescriptions for this complaint. In small doses it is useful in children s diarrhoea, and is reputed to be a remedy for St. Vitus Dance (chorea), although its efficacy here is dubious. 

The herb is used in treating rheumatism (Launert, 1981). Infusions from the seeds are used for rheumatoid arthritis and gout. The essential oil is used in warm water to soak painful, gouty areas of the feet. Root tinctures and also fresh juice from the whole plant are also used in arthritic remedies (http //www. innvista.com/health/herbs/celery.htm). 

Maqianzi, the dried ripe seed of S. nux-vomica contains 1.0-1.4% each of strychnine and brucine. It has been used as a herbal remedy for rheumatism, musculoskeletal injuries, and limb paralysis. 

Nutmeg is used as a spice, as a hallucinogen, and as an herbal remedy for ailments such as rheumatism, diarrhea, anxiety, and excessive flatulence. 

Generally in West Africa, the fruit is widely used in traditional remedies for the treatment of disease conditions including convulsion, gastric ulcer, rheumatism, fevers, whitlow, skin rashes, smallpox, malaria and dysentery (2, 39, 40, 104). It is also used to manage diabetes and cardiovascular diseases like hypertension and stroke in some parts of Ghana (Amoako-Atta, CBUD Director, KNUST, personal communication). The fruits are used to flavor foods and alcoholic beverages 2, 40). 

Plectranthus marrubioides Benth The semi-dried leaves of P. marrubioides yielded about 4% oil containing mainly 64% camphor, and less amounts of a-phellandrene (8.5%) and ocimene (4.2-9.3%). Owing to the high content of camphor, this oil could therefore be useful in making medicinal preparations such as a local anesthetic, remedy for muscular and rheumatic pains and for respiratory conditions (66). 

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