Planta Med 2007; 73 - P_013
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-986795

Anti-inflammatory activity of Aegopodium podagraria L

RM Prior 1, 2, NH Lundgaard 1, 2, ME Light 2, GI Stafford 2, J van Staden 2, AK Jäger 1
  • 1Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2 Universitetsparken, 2100 Copenhagen O, Denmark
  • 2Research Centre for Plant Growth and Development, School of Biological and Conservation Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal Pietermaritzburg, Private Bag X01, Scottsville 3209, South Africa

In the middle ages A. podagraria was used for the treatment of podagra by Friars [1]. Present-day cases of anecdotal evidence of use of A. podagraria (Ground elder) for treatment of gout and inflammatory diseases prompted us to investigate the anti-inflammatory activity of the species.

Water, methanol, acetone, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and hexane extracts were prepared from A. podagraria roots, leaves, stems and flowers. The extracts were screened in vitro for cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) inhibitory activity [2]. Flowers of A. podagraria extracted with hexane had the highest percentage COX-1 inhibitory activity. All extracts of all plant parts, except aqueous extracts which were inactive, exhibited activity in the assay.

For bioassay-guided isolation, dried, powdered root material (20g) was defatted with 200ml petroleum ether. The material was then extracted four times with 200ml ethyl acetate. The extract was filtered and taken to dryness and the residue fractionated on a VLC column (25g silica gel 60), eluted with mixtures of hexane: ethyl acetate. The fractions were tested in the COX-1 assay. The active fraction eluting from the VLC at hexane 80–70%, was applied to a preparative TLC plate, and developed in hexane: ethyl acetate (1:1). Fractions were scraped off the plate, eluted off the silica gel and tested in the COX-1 assay. The active fraction (Rf 0.7–0.86) was investigated by 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR. By comparison with literature data [3,4] the compound was identified as falcarindiol. The IC50-value of falcarindiol was 0.3µM in the COX-1 assay.

A quantitative determination of the seasonal variation in the content of falcarindiol in different plant parts was carried out by HPLC-analysis. The flowers from A. podagraria collected in June 2006 had the highest concentration of falcarindiol (88mg/g plant material).

References: [1] Olesen, A., 2000. Lægeplanter fra danske urtehaver. Frydenlund, København, p.134. [2] Jäger, A.K. et al. (1996) J. Ethnopharm. 52, 95–100. [3] Lechner, D. et al. (2004) Phytochemistry 65, 331–335. [4] Crepa, A., Hofmann, T. (2003) J. Agric. Food Chem. 51, 3865–3873.