SHINBARO, a new herbal medicine with multifunctional mechanism for joint disease: first therapeutic application for the treatment of osteoarthritis.

SHINBARO is a purified extract from a mixture of 6 oriental herbs (Ledebouriellae Radix, Achyranthis Radix, Acanthopanacis Cortex, Cibotii Rhizoma, Glycine Semen, and Eucommiae Cortex) that have been used as a traditional medicine for treatment of several inflammatory diseases and bone disorders. We determined antiinflammatory and antinociceptive activities of SHINBARO in adjuvant-induced (osteo)arthritis in rats. This potential anti-(osteo)arthritic property of SHINBARO can be due to the downregulation of inflammatory mediators such as iNOS, COX-2, and TNF-α, the increase of pain threshold in the peripheral system, the activation of alkaline phosphatase in osteoblasts, the suppression of proteoglycan degradation, and the inhibition of MMP-2 and MMP-9 activities as demonstrated by in vitro and in vivo experimental studies. We confirmed that SHINBARO is as effective as celecoxib, a selective COX-2 inhibitor, but it has the better safety profile in clinical trials. Finally, SHINBARO was approved as a New Herbal Medicine for treatment of osteoarthritis by Korean FDA on January 25(th), 2011.