Studies on the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of Plantaginis Herba and its active constituent - ursolic acid

• Main Authors: Ying-chun Hung, 洪熒駿
• Other Authors: Wen-Huang Peng
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/69259841805705120463

碩士 === 中國醫藥大學 === 中國藥學研究所碩士班 === 95 === In the present study, the analgesic effect of 70% ethanol extract of Plantago asiatica LINNAEUS （PAEtOH）and ursolic acid, an active constitute of PAEtOH, in acetic acid-induced writhing response and formalin-induced paw licking test and the anti-inflammatory effect of PAEtOH and ursolic acid in λ-carrageenan-induced paw edema are investigated. In order to understand the anti-inflammatory mechanism of PAEtOH and ursolic acid, we evaluated superoxide dismutase（SOD）, glutathoine reductase（GR）, glutathione peroxidase（GPx）activities in liver and the levels of malondialdehyde（MDA）, nitric oxide（NO）and cyclooxygenase 2（COX-2）activity in the paw tissue, interleukin-1β（IL-1β）and tumor necrosis factor- α（TNF-α）levels in serum in mice are evaluated. The results shown that PAEtOH （0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 g/kg）and ursolic acid （10, 20 and 40 mg/kg）, significantly decreased the acetic acid intraperitoneal injection induced writhing responses and formalin subplantar injection induced late phase of pain response and caused a significantly inhibition of the λ-carrageenan-induced paw edema in mice. PAEtOH and ursolic acid also caused significant increase in SOD, GR and GPx activities and decrease in the MDA and NO levels in mice liver tissue. Ursolic acid selectively blocked COX-2 activity in the paw and significantly inhibited pro-inflammatory cytokines（IL-1β and TNF-α）, by λ-carrageenan induced in the serum in mice. In conclusion, these results suggested that PAEtOH and ursolic acid were endowed with analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects. The analgesic effect may be due to inhibition of the synthesis of the arachidonic acid metabolite and decreases prostaglandins production. The anti-inflammatory mechanisms of PAEtOH and ursolic acid may be related to the increases in the activities of the anti-oxidant enzymes in the liver and the decreases in the MDA and NO production in the edema paw tissue via suppressing the pro-inflammatory cytokines（IL-1β and TNF-α）production and COX-2 activity.