White willow bark

Why Is White Willow Bark Known as Nature s Aspirin ... 

Figure 13.4.6 A sequence of reactions yielding salicylic acid from the natural product salcin from white willow bark.

White Willow Bark. Healthy Wave, 1999, http //www.healthywave.com/ingredients/whitewillowbark.html... 

White willow bark Calcium pyruvate Guarana extract Various tea extracts... 

White willow bark Salicylate Inhibit norepinephrine breakdown... 

Two herbs that have been used for centuries to treat headaches, fever, sore muscles, and rheumatism are white willow bark and meadowsweet, commonly described as Nature s aspirin. White willow bark Salix alba) contains salicin, a glycoside of salicylic acid. Once in the stomach, the salicin hydrolyzes into salicylic acid, which is the active principle for reducing pain and fever. White willow bark has been mentioned in ancient Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, and Chinese manuscripts, and it was used to treat pain and fever by the ancient physicians Galen, Hippocrates, and Dioscorides. Native Americans used it for headaches, fever, sore muscles, rheumatism, and chills. In the mid-1700s, it was used to treat malaria. Salicin was isolated and identified in the early 1830s, but it was not conclusively shown to reduce the aches and soreness of rheumatism until 1874. White willow bark is recommended for headaches, backache, nerve pain, toothache, and injuries. 

Theoretical concerns have been reported for the use of white willow bark in children or adolescents with viral infections due to the possibility of Reye s syndrome, an acute inflammatory disease in children that has been linked with use of aspirin and other salicylate-containing medications during acute viral infections (Clauson et al. 2005 Mills and Bone 2005 Upton 1999). Data to support or refute such a concern are lacking, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has indicated that no association has been identified between nonaspirin salicylates and Reye s syndrome (FDA 2003). 

An anaphylactic reaction to an herbal product containing white willow bark was reported in a woman with a history of allergy to acetylsalicylic acid (Boullata et al. 2003). 

A clinical trial of white willow bark extract (240 mg daily salicin) for 4 weeks resulted in a mild inhibition of platelet aggregation, as compared to control and 100 mg daily acetylsalicylate (Krivoy et al. 2001). A review of salicin-con-taining plants indicated that salicin does not elicit the same irreversible inhibition of platelet aggregation that acetylsalicylic acid in aspirin does (Meier and Liebi 1990). 

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