Abstract
Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease, which
affects the joints and causes significant pain, impairing patient's quality of life. Strychni semen
showed promising results to treat RA. However, there are increasing safety concerns in using
strychni semen due to its severe toxicity.
Aim and Objective: The purpose of this review is to provide insight into using Strychni semen as
an alternative medicine to treat RA, as well as to offer a method for the safe application of
Strychni semen through processing and compatibility studies.
Methods: Publications were retrieved and surveyed from CNKI and PubMed relevant to Strychni
semen for a literature review.
Results: This article summarized the mechanism of function of strychni semen in treating RA with
its anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and immunomodulatory effect. Commonly used methods to
attenuate the toxicity of Strychni semen were also discussed in this article.
Conclusion: Strychni semen has a good therapeutic effect on RA, mainly by the modulation of
immunity with anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects. Also, the reported toxicity of strychni
semen can be effectively reduced by processing and compatibility methods. Hence, as an
alternative medicine for RA treatment, strychni semen has a broad prospect.
Keywords:
Rheumatoid arthritis, Strychnos nux-vomica, Strychni semen, strychnine, brucine, toxicity reduction.
Graphical Abstract
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