Cat’s claw

Cat’s claw: what was it used for?

A Peruvian remedy for inflammation. The assessment report records that Peruvian tribes, the Asháninka with the longest recorded history of its use, took it as an anti-inflammatory, a contraceptive, and an emmenagogue, and for gastric ulcer, diarrhoea, asthma, wounds, arthritis, and cancer, and that it was traditionally avoided in pregnancy, breast-feeding, and for children. Since the early 1990s it has been used in Peru and Europe as an adjunct in cancer and AIDS.

Cat’s claw: what does modern science say?

The European Medicines Agency’s herbal committee declined to adopt a monograph on the bark (public statement of 2015): preparations had been in medicinal use in the European Union for more than fifteen but less than thirty years, and the requirements for well-established use were not met. Its assessment report found the preclinical data diverse and noted that most studies did not specify which bark was used. LiverTox, revised in 2019, finds the evidence for its efficacy in people mixed: small controlled trials suggested some benefit for pain in rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, while other studies were inconclusive.

Cat’s claw: what did the older authorities say?

The European Medicines Agency’s assessment report (2015)

The plant was first described in 1830 and first studied in Peru by the German biologist Brell in 1950. In the 1970s the Austrian Klaus Keplinger began the scientific work that led to extracts sold in Austria and Germany and to four United States patents on its oxindole alkaloids; the research and business that followed so overharvested the vine that it declined in the Peruvian rainforests.