A plant that has been used for centuries by Amazon tribes could be set to take the western world by storm, as it is about to be made into a pain relief gel to deal with toothache. Achmella Oleracea is a red and yellow plant found in the depths of the rainforest that has incredible painkilling properties, and has proved even more successful than existing treatments, according to Cambridge University anthropologist Dr Francoise Barbira Freedman.
Dr Freedman was living with a tribe in Peru more than thirty years ago, when she started to feel some pain in her wisdom teeth, the tribe’s medicine man gave her the rare plant as a remedy and she said that the ache disappeared immediately. It has also been suggested that the herb may be strong enough to replace anaesthetic injections, and could be used to relieve the pain of teething in babies. On the list that Dr Freedman compiled of rainforest remedies, the Achmella Oleracea was actually at the bottom as ‘an afterthought’, but in a fortuitous twist, the list was reversed and the Peruvian plant was the first one to be tested when she returned to the UK.
Using extracts from the plant, researchers have developed a gel which could be on the market in just two years time, after proving highly effective in early trials. Dr Freedman said ‘we’ve had really clear results from the tests so far, particularly for procedures such as scaling and polishing, and there are many other potential applications.’