B. serrata has been used for thousands of years in the Indian system of traditional medicine.

The study, published in the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy, found patients taking the herbal remedy showed significant improvement in as little as seven days.

Dr. Siba Raychaudhuri of the University of California, Davis, said the high incidence of adverse affects associated with available medications for osteoarthritis -- the most common form of arthritis -- has created great interest in the search for an effective and safe alternative treatment.

The 90-day, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study was conducted on 90 people to evaluate the efficacy and safety of 5-Loxin -- an enriched extract of B. serrata in the treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee.

At the end of the study, both doses of 5-Loxin conferred clinically and statistically significant improvements in pain scores and physical function scores in the patients.