Pharmacological investigations with compounds of chamomile.

While it is known that chamomile contains matricine, so far it was not clear whether this chamazulene precursor is as pharmacologically active as chamazulene itself. As guajazulene, moreover, is frequently used instead of matricine and chamazulene in chamomile preparations it was the purpose of this work to compare the antiphiogistic activities of all these substances. The antiphiogistic properties after oral administration of chamazulene and matricine in comparison with guajazulene, (-)-alpha-bisabolol (INN Levomenol) and salicylamide were studied in rat paw carrageenin edema. Two and three hours after administration of the substances, matricine on a molar basis was similarly effective as (-)-alpha-bisabolol. Four hours after administration, no significant differences were found between the two substances. On the other hand, chamazulene und guaj azulene showed significantly less activity than (-)-alpha-bisabolol and matricine. After four hours, the pharmacological effects of guaj azulene decreased significantly whereas chamazulene showed nearly constant activities over the entire testing period. Guajazulene thus proves to have a therapeutic performance of shorter terms than chamazulene. The results prove that matricine, chamazulene and guajazulene must be considered as having different antiphiogistic activities and that these substances cannot be replaced by each other arbitrarily in chamomile preparations.