Anti-inflammatory activity of four Bolivian Baccharis species (Compositae)
Introduction
Medicinal plants are an important element of indigenous medical systems in South American countries and elsewhere and these resources are usually regarded as part of a culture's traditional knowledge. For many years, Europe has profited from exchange with other continents, and many of the pure natural products and some of the phytotherapeutic preparations used today are derived from plants used in indigenous cultures. The role of the ethnobotanist in the search for new drugs was of continuous importance until the second half of the 20th century, when other approaches became more “fashionable”. However, in recent years, the use of such information in medicinal plant research for drug development has again received considerable interest in the media and in some segments of the scientific community (Heinrich, 2000).
The large American genus Baccharis (Compositae) comprises about 400 species. Of them, 20% are locally used for medicinal purposes or, to a lesser extent, as food or as raw material for different local industries. Several species of this genus have been investigated chemically or pharmacologically for their anti-inflammatory properties (Gene et al., 1992, Gene et al., 1996, De las Heras et al., 1998, Gianello et al., 1999, Perez-García et al., 2001, Cifuente et al., 2001, Parejo et al., 2003, Tapia et al., 2004). In a search for new substances with anti-inflammatory activity, organic and aqueous extracts of Baccharis obtusifolia HBK, Baccharis latifolia (R. et P.) Pers., Baccharis pentlandii D.C. and Baccharis subulata Wedd. were tested in vitro. These plants are used in the form of decoctions in the traditional medicine of South America for the treatment of rheumatism, liver diseases, wounds and ulcers. In the course of our biological search for anti-inflammatory agents, the present paper was undertaken in order to investigate the effects of these extracts on some macrophage functions involved in the inflammatory process. These extracts have been tested in two experimental systems: ionophore-stimulated mouse peritoneal macrophages serve as source of cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) and 5-lipoxygenase (5-LOX), and mouse peritoneal macrophages stimulated with Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) are the means of testing for cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), nitric oxide (NO) and tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) activity.
Section snippets
Plant material
The plants were authenticated by the Herbarium of the Faculty of Pharmacy, Mayor University of San Andres, La Paz, Bolivia. A voucher specimen of each plant has been deposited at this herbarium. All plants were collected at the flowering stage. Data on plant material are summarised in Table 1.
Preparation of extracts
For each plant material, four extracts of different polarity were prepared as follows:
Results
Hexanic and dichloromethanic extracts were generally more toxic to mouse peritoneal macrophages than ethanolic and aqueous extracts. None of the ethanolic and aqueous extracts tested showed a cytotoxic effect on cells up to a concentration of 200 μg/ml. The dichloromethanic extract of Baccharis obtusifolia and the hexanic and dichloromethanic extracts of Baccharis latifolia were cytotoxic up to a concentration of 50 μg/ml, while the dichloromethanic extracts of Baccharis pentlandii and Baccharis
Discussion
During the past 15 years, the understanding of the mechanisms and molecules of inflammation have expanded dramatically. The discovery of entirely new classes of protein and lipid mediators of inflammation have clearly changed the perception of the pathogenesis of inflammation and have begun to take new approaches to the development of drugs for the therapy of inflammatory diseases (Cronstein and Weissmann, 1995). Macrophages play an important tissue-damaging role in a number of inflammatory
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Programa de Cooperación Científica con Iberoamérica (PR 77/00-8992) from Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. This work was also supported by Proyecto de Investigacion UCM (052/PR13282). The technical assistance of Ms. P. Brooke-Turner is gratefully acknowledged.
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