Received Date: 04-Mar-2016

Revised Date: 10-Jun-2016

Accepted Article
Accepted Date: 13-Jun-2016

Article Type: Review

Natural flavonoids as promising analgesic candidates: a systematic

review

by Xiao Xiao#a), Xiaoyu Wang#a) b), Xuan Guia) b), Lu Chena), and Baokang Huang* a)

a) School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, PR China

(phone: +86-021-81871301, e-mail: hbkcn@163.com)

b) School of Pharmacy, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou 350108,

Fujian, PR China

* Corresponding author E-mail address: hbkcn@163.com

#
Co-first authors who contributed equally in this manuscript.

1. Introduction

Pain is a universal public health problem. How to improve pain management is always a

public health priority at the national level and undoubtedly important [1]. Perception and

transmission of pain are complex processes that involve peripheral and central mechanisms.

This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not
been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may
lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as
doi: 10.1002/cbdv.201600060
This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
 Different mediators, such as 5-HT (5-hydroxytryptamine), nitric oxide, prostaglandin,

superoxide anion and cyclooxygenase are involved in pathogenesis of pain [2-4]. Effective
Accepted Article
multifaceted pain treatment relies on effective drugs to ensure minimal adverse effects and

optimized rehabilitation. For the adverse reactions, physical dependence, and abuse liability

of the obtainable drugs, a novel pharmaco-therapeutic drug with potential effect is an

emergency need [5, 6]. Numerous researches show that flavonoid glycosides are extensively

ubiquitous natural products with a wide variety of biological activities, such as

anti-inflammatory, analgesic activities with lesser side effects [7, 8].. Many medicinal plants

containing flavonoids have been widely used in folk medicine as analgesic.

There are more than 4000 different flavonoids identified from plants and flavonoids

identically possess a phenyl benzopyrone structure of C6-C3-C6. A majority of flavonoids are

distributed in plants as glycoside forms and most of them are the form of free glycoside.

Flavonoids are also abundant in tea, wine, celery, berries and soy foods, which are

inadvertently consumed and have a positive effect on health without any major side impact

[9]. Studies conducted in vivo or/and in vitro have elucidated that flavonoids possess

anti-oxidative [10], anti-inflammatory [11], antipyretic [12], anti-allergic [13], anti-ulcer [14],

anti-bacterial [15], anti-cancer [16], anti-viral [17], anti-protozoal [18], anti-platelets [19],

anti-atherogenic [20] activities. Some flavonoids with analgesic activities are promising in

development of new analgesic drugs, which has aroused great interest of a large number of

advanced users and academic researchers. This review is aim to systemically investigate the

evidence for analgesic potential of natural flavonoids.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.