Anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities of Edgeworthia chrysantha and its effective chemical constituents

The barks and roots of Edgeworthia chrysantha LINDL., which have been used as the folk medicine "Zhu shima" in southern China due to their detumescence and acesodyne effects, were investigated for their anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities using a xylene-induced ear edema assay in mice and Freund's complete adjuvant-induced paw edema as inflammation models, and the acetic acid-induced writhing test as an analgesic model. Fractions effective in terms of anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities were obtained from E. chrysantha. The chloroform-soluble fraction (CHF) showed significant anti-inflammatory (p<0.01-0.001) and analgesic (p<0.01) effects. On further purification by silica gel, three major coumarins, edgeworin (EdN), edgeworosides A and C (EdeA and EdeC), were isolated from the chloroform fraction and both anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities were evaluated. EdN and EdeA had anti-inflammatory (p<0.05-0.01) and analgesic (p<0.001) effects, while EdeC only showed an analgesic effect. The results of this study thus demonstrated that the coumarins EdN, EdeA and EdeC in this plant may be active constituents that contribute to the anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects.