Anti-inflammatory principles from the fruits of Evodia rutaecarpa and their cellular action mechanisms

Abstract

The fruits of Evodia rutaecarpa Benth (Rutaceae) has long been used for inflammatory disorders and some anti-inflammatory actions of its constituents such as dehydroevodiamine, evodiamine and rutaecarpine were previously reported. Since the pharmacological data is not sufficient to clearly establish the scientific rationale of anti-inflammatory medicinal use of this plant material and the search for its active principles is limited so far, three major constituents (evodiamine, rutaecarpine, goshuyuamide II) were evaluated for their anti-inflammatory cellular action mechanisms in the present study. From the results, evodiamine and rutaecarpine were found to strongly inhibit prostaglandin E2 synthesis from lipopolysaccharide-treated RAW 264.7 cells at 1-10 μM. Evodiamine inhibited cyclooxygenase-2 induction and NF-κB activation, while rutaecarpine did not. On the other hand, goshuyuamide II inhibited 5-lipoxygenase from RBL-1 cells (IC50 = 6.6 μM), resulting in the reduced synthesis of leukotrienes. However, these three compounds were not inhibitory against inducible nitric oxide synthase-mediated nitric oxide production from RAW cells up to 50 μM. These pharmacological properties may provide the additional scientific rationale for anti-inflammatory use of the fruits of E. rutaecarpa.