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Light‐Independent Anti‐Inflammatory Activity of Hypericum perforatum Extracts
Author(s) -
Hammer Kimberly D.P.,
Hillwig Matthew L.,
Solco Avery K.S.,
Murphy Patricia A.,
Wurtele Eve S.,
Birt Diane F.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.5.a734-a
Subject(s) - hypericin , hypericum perforatum , hypericum , chemistry , prostaglandin e2 , lipopolysaccharide , chloroform , anti inflammatory , ethanol , hyperforin , pharmacology , traditional medicine , chromatography , biochemistry , biology , medicine , immunology , endocrinology
Since Hypericum perforatum (Hp) constituents possess light‐activated anti‐viral and anti‐proliferative activity, we assessed whether the anti‐inflammatory activity of Hp extracts is dependent on light‐activation using a prostaglandin E 2 (PGE 2) assay. RAW264.7 macrophage cells were stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and PGE 2 levels were measured at 8 hours. Soxhlet chloroform extracts at 8–29 μg/ml reduced PGE 2 levels by 50–85% and Soxhlet ethanol extracts at 65–147 μg/ml reduced PGE 2 levels by 89–93%. The level of constituents detected by LC‐MS within the extracts were lower than the concentration of pure constituents needed to reduce PGE 2 , suggesting that interaction of compounds may be important in the anti‐inflammatory activity of the extracts. Chloroform and ethanol extracts of Elixir™ significantly reduced PGE 2 at 8 μg/ml, however; no other accession tested reduced PGE 2 at this concentration. The common constituent between the extracts was hypericin, but pure hypericin did not reduce LPS‐induced PGE 2 levels. This suggested that unknown compounds may be important for the activity. The anti‐inflammatory activity of all the accession extracts was not significantly different between light‐activated and dark treatments, suggesting that the anti‐inflammatory activity of Hp extracts is light‐independent. Supported by grant ES012020 from NIEHS and ODS, NIH.