Evaluation of Anti-inflammatory and Analgesic Activities of Cymbopogon citratus In vivo-Polyphenols Contribution

• Autor(a) principal: Garcia, Rita
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Ferreira, Joao Pinto, Costa, Gustavo, Santos, Telmo, Branco, Fábio, Caramona, Margarida, Carvalho, Rui de, Dinis, Augusto Manuel, Batista, Maria Teresa, Castel-Branco, Margarida, Figueiredo, Isabel V.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/101140; https://doi.org/10.3923/rjmp.2015.1.13
• topic: Cymbopogon citratus; lemongrass; in vivo; inflammation; pain; phenolic compounds

Cymbopogon citratus is one of the most common herbs used in folk medicine due to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Taking into account these properties showed on in vitro assays, the aim of this study was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities of C. citratus leaves infusion (CcE) and its flavonoid-rich (CcF) and tannin-rich (CcT) fractions. The evaluation of the anti-inflammatory activity was performed in the carrageenan-induced rat paw oedema model. Both central and peripheral analgesic activities were evaluated in mice through the hot plate test and the acetic acid-induced writhing test, respectively. In the acute inflammation model, the statistically significant results obtained in percentage of oedema inhibition were 70.80 and 82.30% for CcE (34.12 and 68.24 mg kg , respectively), 59.00% for CcF 1 1 1 1 (7.42 mg kg ), 61.00% for CcT (5.96 mg kg ) and 84.00% for positive control group (10 mg kg ). For the peripheral pain evaluation, statistically significant results showed a pain 1 1 1 reduction of 57.00% for CcE (136.48 mg kg ), 54.60% for CcF (14.8 mg kg ), 52.20% for CcT (11.92 mg kg ) and 83.00% for positive control group. This study demonstrates that C. citratus infusion compounds are able to reduce inflammation and peripheral pain in vivo, with polyphenols showing a significant contribution for these activities.