Preliminary reports suggest that it could provide analgesic effects with few of the detrimental side-effects associated with opioids such as morphine, though at present it has only been evaluated in mouse models.

The Weinreb group (2014) used a conjugative addition of an indole precursor to an oxime-substituted nitrosoalkene to generate the tetracyclic skeleton of conolidine in 4 steps.

[4] Takayama and colleagues (2016) synthesized conolidine and apparicine through a gold(I)-catalyzed exo-dig synthesis of a racemic piperidinyl aldehyde.

[7] In 2011, the Bohn lab noted antinociception against both chemically induced and inflammation-derived pain, and experiments indicated lack of opioid receptor modulation, but were unable to define a particular target.

A 2019 study by a cross-site Australian and U.S. group discovered through cultured neuronal networks that conolidine may inhibit the Ca v2.2 channel, a mechanism seen in molecules like conotoxin.