June's herb of the month: Devil's claw

Medical herbalist Dee Atkinson talks us through the benefits of devil’s claw.

When I first started practising herbal medicine in Edinburgh in the late 1980’s, I was very lucky to have expert herbalist Jan de Vries as a friend and mentor. I remember asking Jan for advice on how to manage some of the many patients I was seeing who had been diagnosed with post viral fatigue or ME. Among the herbs that Jan suggested was devil’s claw. This re-awakened my long relationship with this strange and wonderful plant.

Some years earlier I had been travelling in Africa and had spotted a strange plant for sale at the roadside and in the market place. It seemed to be almost magical with hooked fruits and a strange shaped root. I had bought some and when I returned home had tried to identify it. My African friends said it was used for digestion problems and fever, but it wasn’t until I started studying herbal medicine that I unearthed the root from the back of a drawer and had it identified.

Traditional uses

Devil’s claw grows in Southern Africa, mainly in Namibia, Angola, Botswana and the Kalahari, where it is used traditionally to treat pain, fever, skin conditions, joint pain, and as a digestive stimulant. It gets its name from the strange claw-like appearance of its fruit capsule, which is covered with small hooks.

These days devils claw is mainly used to treat inflammation and pain. Much used in Europe, especially in Germany, where according to a study it accounted in 2001 for 74 per cent of all prescriptions written for rheumatism, devils claw has been rapidly gaining popularity in the UK.

Joint benefits

In clinic I find that devil’s claw is one of the best remedies for managing arthritis and inflammatory joint conditions. Working in a multidisciplinary clinic, we often work as a practitioner group to manage specific patients or heal issues. When we first started out our osteopath asked me for some herbs that could be used with patients who had severe inflammation, which had to be reduced before any osteopathic work could be done.

We started using devil’s claw capsules, and the results were impressive. I often combine it with willow bark and bromalin and find that this is as effective as most over- the-counter, anti-inflammatory remedies.

I now routinely use devil’s claw with all my patients who start to show symptoms of arthritic change. In Scotland, with our cold damp climate we have a lot of patients experiencing early onset joint problems and if you can start treatment early it can often be managed effectively for years.

My clinical experience has also shown that devils claw can be used to manage muscular inflammation as well as joint inflammation. I first experienced this when, on advice from Jan de Vries, I used devils claw to manage chronic fatigue, where there is muscle fatigue and trigger points of inflammation.

Dee Atkinson MCPP, Medical Herbalist, Napiers the Herbalists 

Devil's Claw can be found in Flexiherb - A traditional herbal medicinal product used for thr relief of backache, rheumatic or muscular pain and general aches and pains in the muscles and joints based on traditional use only.