Toothache plant

Spilanthes acmella (Toothache Plant, Paracress) is a food product that has some history of medicinal usage related to its pain relieving properties. As the bioactives are absorbed topically and the leaves are used in salads, consumption of salads have been touted to help toothaches and other oral diseases where pain is a side-effect thereof.

It is currently in preliminary stages of research right now, with no human evidence. In rats, these pain relieving effects do appear to exist when applied to the skin (no evidence on oral consumption) and are fairly potent, but underperformed when compared to the reference drug.

Other properties of Spilanthese Acmella are as an aphrodisiac (which appears to be quite potent in rats, building up in efficacy over time rather than acute effects) and the diuretic effect, which only has one study on it currently but exhibited more potent effects than furosemide. The mechanism of diuresis appears to be similar to a loop diuretic.

Additionally, Spilanthes has been found to increase testosterone, FSH, and LH; similar effects were also noted with another herb containing the same molecular class of N-Akylamides (Anacyclus Pyrethrum) but currently this is one study.