The protective role of bergamot polyphenolic fraction on several animal models of pain

- Bergamot juice extract is rich in polyphenols that carry out a primary role in the safeguard of human health.
- considerable evidence implicate oxidative stress in the development and maintenance of pain of several etiologies.
- Bergamot polyphenolic fraction exerts a protective role during the development of inflammatory and neuropathic pain as well as opiate-induced hyperalgesia and antinociceptive tolerance.

Bergamot is the common name for Citrus bergamia Risso et Poiteau, a plant belonging to the Rutaceae family (subfamily Esperidea). The trees show big dark green ovate leaves similar to those of lemon, starshaped white flowers and round yellow fruits. In recent years, C. bergamia juice has been raising interest and has been the subject of several studies, considering the potentiality of its health promoting. Beneficial effects of bergamot juice mainly derive from its rich content in polyphenols. In the last 20 years considerable evidence demonstrated the role of oxidative stress in the development and maintenance of hyperalgesia and several studies suggest the protective role of natural compounds in attenuating the functional, biochemical and molecular alterations associated with pain through modulation of oxido-inflammatory and glutamatergic pathway.Our studies demonstrated that also natural antioxidant fractions exert a protective role during several types of pain in animal models. Thus, analgesics therapeutic properties of bergamot extracts could encourage a new therapeutic intervention for the management of pain suffering patients.