Title:New Pharmacological Approaches Using Polyphenols on the Physiopathology of Neuropathic Pain
Volume: 18
Issue: 2
Author(s): Pere Boadas-Vaello, Jose Miguel Vela and Enrique Verdu
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Pain, baicalin, pueranin, myricitrin, epigallocatechin gallate, curcumin, resveratrol.
Abstract: Polyphenols constitute a group of a paramount importance within the natural products in
the plant kingdom, with an approximate amount of 8000 phenolic structures currently known. Fruits,
vegetables, whole grains and several other foods and beverages (as tea, chocolate and wine, for instance)
are rich and important sources of polyphenols. The scientific literature provides pre-clinical
experimental evidence on the antinociceptive effects of polyphenolic compounds, found in plant extracts,
in animal models of neuropathic pain. But not only neuropathic pain is attenuated: in fact, nociceptive
pain, caused by stimulation of nerve fibers (either somatic or visceral) responding only to
stimuli approaching or exceeding harmful intensity thresholds (nociceptors), and also inflammatory
pain, which is associated with tissue damage and infiltration of immune cells, are both reduced and
alleviated by polyphenols. In the present work, the antinociceptive effects of polyphenols are reviewed.