Effects of Munari Powder on Physical and Sensory-motor Parameters: A Preliminary Report

Munari powder is broadly used in physical medicine and rehabilitation to decrease pain and help normalize sensory-motor function. It operates as TPRV1 agonist and “stops” generation of action potentials in pain nerve fibers. This is a short report of a pilot study on 20 subjects. Every subject underwent four visits to our laboratory, where the Munari applications and related measurements of its effects took place. Each of the healthy adults received the following applications: (1) placebo, i.e. 0% cayenne pepper mixture, consisting only of water and kaolin, (2) weak, i.e. 2.5% cayenne pepper mixture, (3) medium, i.e. 5.0% cayenne pepper mixture, and (4) strong, i.e. 10% cayenne pepper mixture. The assessments were carried out before the Munari powder patch application, right after the application, and 15 and 30 min after the termination of the 20-minute Munari powder patch application. We measured subjective cold/hot feeling on visual analogue scale, blood pressure, body temperature, skin light touch sensations, sense for two-point discrimination, and pain threshold to the mechanical stimulus. Besides these tests, maximal voluntary force during isometric trunk extension and the sitting balance test were performed. The preliminary results indicate that the 5% concentration of cayenne pepper mixture is the best choice because no additional effects were observed with the 10% concentration and the effects are higher than with 2.5% concentration. Whether this will be also thrue for the patients suffering pain ought to be determined.