Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Salvadora persica L. against Carrageenan Induced Paw Oedema in Rat Relevant to Inflammatory Cytokines

In this study, the anti-inflammatory effect of aqueous alcoholic crude extract and ethyl acetate extract of miswak sticks ( Salvadora persica L. ) was investigated in carrageenan induced rat paw oedema in respect to immunological parameters. Adult male sapargue dawely rats were classified into four groups, group I received the vehicle (0.25% gum acacia solution), group II received crude aqueous alcoholic extract orally at 100 mg/kg, group III received ethyl acetate extract (100 mg/kg) orally and group IV received indomethacin (20 mg/kg) orally, and served as standard reference. The oedema was quantified by measuring the hind paw thickness immediately before subplantar injection, and at 1, 2, 3 and 4 h. Blood samples were withdrawn after the 4 th hour of carrageenan induction, centrifuged and sera were used for analysis of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Administration of aqueous alcoholic extract and ethyl acetate extract (100 mg/ml) significantly reduced the oedema thickness in a time dependent manner, the inhibition percentage of inflammation was 17% for crude extract and 27% for ethyl acetate extract. Also the two extracts reduced secretion of inflammatory mediators, interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, tumor nercrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) in serum. The ethyl acetate extract shows potent activity to be nearly the same of indomethacin activity on all determined parameters at the last hour of following up. These results may be due to the presence of flavonoids in ethyl acetate extract. Three major flavonoids were isolated from ethyl acetate extract and identified as apigenin rhamnoglucoside, luteolin glucoside and rutin. The experimental study revealed that Salvadora persica extracts display remarkable anti-inflammatory activity.