Pine bark extract may reduce knee arthritis pain

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An inflammation-fighting plant extract may offer some pain relief to people with mild knee arthritis, a new study suggests.

The extract, derived from the bark of the French maritime pine tree, has been shown to have strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions in lab studies.

These latest findings suggest that those actions may translate into pain relief for people with early-stage osteoarthritis.

Researchers found that knee arthritis sufferers who took the pine bark extract for three months reported an improvement in their pain, while those given a placebo had no improvement.

In addition, the study found, the pain relief persisted for an additional two weeks after the patients stopped taking the extract, which is marketed under the brand-name Pycnogenol.

This lasting benefit is not something that is seen with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), the mainstay of arthritis treatment, Dr. Peter Rohdewald, the study's senior author, told Reuters Health.

"Our study doesn't show evidence for this, but I do speculate that Pycnogenol has a more lasting effect on the joints, further to mere pain management as with NSAIDs," said Rohdewald, of the University of Munster in Germany.

The herbal extract, he explained, appears to work as a potent anti- inflammatory within the joints.