Cat's Claw (Uncaria) for Anti-Inflammatory

Research suggests that cat's claw (Uncaria tomentosa and related species) possesses meaningful anti-inflammatory properties, with a consistent body of preclinical evidence showing that extracts can inhibit key inflammatory pathways, particularly NF-κB activation and IL-6 production, as well as suppress TNF-alpha synthesis in cell and animal studies. The evidence base includes a 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis of 24 animal studies, multiple mechanistic cell culture studies, several narrative and scoping reviews, and two small randomized controlled trials — one in osteoarthritis patients that found significant reductions in activity-related knee pain within one week, and one in cancer patients that found modest quality-of-life improvements but no measurable changes in inflammatory markers. Studies indicate that the anti-inflammatory activity does not appear to be driven solely by the plant's well-known alkaloid content, with non-alkaloid fractions such as flavanols also implicated, and that the two primary species studied show broadly comparable activity. However, the overall clinical evidence remains limited and at times mixed, with reviewers consistently noting that rigorous human trials are largely absent, that extract standardization varies widely across studies, and that while animal and in vitro findings are promising, they cannot be directly extrapolated to human outcomes.