New government-funded research on terpenes produced by the cannabis plant finds that some of the aromatic compounds could be promising therapeutics to help manage pain from fibromyalgia or during recovery from an operation.
The study, published this month in the journal Pharmacological Reports, involved administering four separate terpenes—geraniol, linalool, beta-caryophyllene and alpha-humulene—to mice that either underwent paw-incision surgery or had lab-induced fibromyalgia symptoms. Researchers then measured their “mechanical sensitivity” over the course of three hours to evaluate the terpenes’ possible effects on pain.
“These results demonstrate that the terpenes geraniol, linalool, β-caryophyllene, and α-humulene may be a viable medication for post-operative and fibromyalgia pain relief,” says the report, which was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
As for post-operative pain, each of the four studied terpenes “increased mechanical threshold significantly in comparison to the mice treated with the vehicle,” according to the research, referring to a solution without any terpenes that’s been previously shown not to have any pain-relieving effect. “Taken together, the data suggests that all 4 terpenes are efficacious in relieving post-surgical pain.”
All four terpenes also increased mechanical sensitivity in mice with fibromyalgia-like symptoms compared to mice treated with the vehicle alone, at least for some time points measured. Differences in mice treated with geraniol and linalool were statistically significant, while sensitivity in the mice treated with the other two terpenes was “elevated over vehicle but not statistically significant,” according to the report.
“These observations suggest that these four terpenes are also efficacious in a fibromyalgia pain model,” it says.
“This work further strengthens the case for the translational potential of Cannabis and its individual components to determine if they could be effective in relieving post-operative and fibromyalgia pain in patients while causing more tolerable side effects than current standard medications for these ailments.”
The current study, noted authors at the University of Arizona’s pharmacology department and Center for Pain and Addiction, is a continuation of their past research into the same four terpenes to treat other types of pain.
“Previously, we found the terpenes…to be effective in relieving CIPN [chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy] and inflammatory pain in mice,” they wrote in the new report. “Their efficacy in other pain models, such as post-operative and fibromyalgia pain, had not yet been defined.”
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