초록
Swollen and painful extremities have been treated with herbal baths in attempts to alleviate the symptoms. A popular herbal bath used in China, contains a component called 'bone-penetrating herb' which is believed to facilitate the penetration of herbal substances across the skin to the swollen site, so swollen site, so that pain and swelling will be improved. A search from the Chinese pharmacopedia revealed that 22 different herbs have been traditionally used as 'bone-penetrating herb'. Five of these herbs were available in market and were chosen for experimental studies. Standard diffusion experiments were done to identify the most effective herb among the five, in the penetration facilitation. Glechoma longituba at a concentration of 20% was found to give the best results in the facilitation of Bromophenol blue diffusion across artificial and biological membranes. When compared with one commonly used diffusion facilitator, viz. azone, azone was found to be more effective than glechoma longituba. The encouraging observations support future studies on the basic science behind the use of herbal components as topical agents to treat pain and swelling.