crocin and Edema

Crocin and safranal are the active substances of saffron and have many biological properties. In the present study, we compared the effects of crocin, safranal and diclofenac on local inflammation and its induced pain in rats.. Local inflammation was induced by intraplantar (ipl) injection of carrageenan (100 μl, 2%). Paw thickness was measured before and after carrageenan injection. Inflammatory pain responses including cold allodynia, mechanical allodynia and hyperalgesia were assessed using acetone spray and von Frey filament tests, respectively. The number of neutrophils in inflammatory zone was counted 6.5 h after injection of carrageenan.. Carrageenan produced edema, cold allodynia, mechanical allodynia and hyperalgesia and caused neutrophil infiltration in paw tissues. Crocin at doses of 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg, safranal at doses of 0.5, 1 and 2 mg/kg and diclofenac (as a reference drug) at a dose of 10 mg/kg attenuated edema, suppressed inflammatory pain responses and decreased the number of neutrophils.. The present study showed anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive activities for crocin, safranal and diclofenac in carrageenan model of local inflammation and inflammatory pain.

Topics: Analgesics; Animals; Anti-Inflammatory Agents; Carotenoids; Carrageenan; Cyclohexenes; Diclofenac; Disease Models, Animal; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Edema; Hyperalgesia; Inflammation; Male; Neutrophil Infiltration; Pain; Pain Threshold; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Terpenes; Time Factors

Gardenia jasminoides Ellis and Crocus sativus L. are both traditional Chinese medicines that have significant biologic activities on inflammatory processes. But the active ingredients remain unclear. Crocin, a representative of carotenoid compounds, has now drawn considerable attention not only because it is a natural food colorant but also because it has great potential in medicine. But until now, the systematic anti-inflammatory effect of crocin has not been well established. In the present study, experiments were carried out to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effects of crocin in vitro and in vivo. In vitro, cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibition assays showed that crocin exhibits a dual inhibitory activity against the COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes. Anti-inflammatory activity in vivo was evaluated using two animal edema model tests. Pretreatment with crocin (p.o.) dose-dependently inhibited the xylene-induced ear edema in mice and carrageenan-induced paw edema in rats. In gastric lesion tests, crocin was gastric-sparing in that it elicited markedly fewer stomach lesions as compared to the number of stomach lesions caused by indomethacin in rats. In further studies, crocin was found to significantly inhibit the productions of prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)) in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-challenged RAW 264.7, which is parallel to its prevention of the nuclear translocation of the NF-kappaB p50 and p65 subunits. These data indicate that crocin exhibits obvious anti-inflammatory effects and may be one of the active ingredients in Gardenia jasminoides Ellis or Crocus sativus L. that can modulate inflammatory processes.

Topics: Animals; Anti-Inflammatory Agents; Carotenoids; Carrageenan; Cell Line; Cyclooxygenase Inhibitors; Dinoprostone; Edema; Lipopolysaccharides; Macrophages; Male; Mice; Rats; Stomach Diseases; Xylenes