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Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing
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A new book on pain management: the natural way

11 May 2026
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Plants for Pain book cover

Plants relieving pain date back thousands of years to the power of the opium poppy. Botanicals are still in the limelight as people in pain turn to herbal medicines – natural botanicals, considered safe at recommended doses. Medications like opioids, or even aspirin, can be limited by their use for chronic Pain, either adverse addictive and health or gastric side effects, respectively.

In contrast, pain-killing medicinal plants used today are free of such hazards, and offer the appealing prospect of alternative, nature-based analgesic therapy for both acute and chronic pain.

■ Which plant medicine to use for what sort of pain?
■ How to take the plant – dose and any contraindications?
■ Is pain relief backed by clinical evidence and science on mechanisms?

You can find answers in this illuminating collection of monographs written by Professor Paul Chazot, Director at WRIHW Pain Challenge Academy and long-term colleagues at Dilston Physic garden, experts on pain, neuroscience, and plant medicine.

The maxim that ‘pain is inevitable, suffering is optional’, attributed to the Buddha, applies more to acute than chronic pain. Selecting an analgesic plant for pain therefore depends on the condition. Familiar European analgesic botanicals are: chilli pepper for nerve damage – neuropathic pain, white willow bark or meadowsweet for fever aches and pains, and aloe vera or comfrey for application to wounds. Among more exotic species, turmeric and devil’s claw for example can counter
 inflammation – a core cause of pain. Flowering plants or trees like these, which benefit human health by relieving pain, add to the wonder of nature. Professor Chazot will be talking about this topic in Pint of Science on the 19th May https://pintofscience.co.uk/event/from-plants-to-policy-science-in-a-changing-world/