Anti-inflammatory activity of methyl ferulate isolated from Stemona tuberosa Lour

Nguyen Thi Mai Phuong; Trinh Tat Cuong; Dang Ngoc Quang

doi:10.1016/S1995-7645(14)60254-6

Anti-inflammatory activity of methyl ferulate isolated from Stemona tuberosa Lour

Asian Pac J Trop Med. 2014 Sep:7S1:S327-31. doi: 10.1016/S1995-7645(14)60254-6.

Authors

Nguyen Thi Mai Phuong¹, Trinh Tat Cuong², Dang Ngoc Quang³

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Biotechnology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam. Electronic address: phuong_nguyen_99@yahoo.com.
² Key Laboratory for Enzyme and Protein Technology, Hanoi University of Science, Vietnam.
³ Faculty of Chemistry, Hanoi National University of Education, Vietnam.

PMID: 25312145
DOI: 10.1016/S1995-7645(14)60254-6

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the anti-inflammatory activity of methyl ferulate (MF) isolated from the roots of Stemona tuberosa (S. tuberosa) Lour (Stemonaceae) in lipopolysaccharide activated macrophage cells.

Methods: Methanol extracts of a root powder of S. tuberosa were prepared for isolation of a potential anti-inflammatory agent using ultrasound extraction combined with repeated chromatography on silica gel. After the quantitative analyses, anti-inflammatory activity of the isolated compound was evaluated by measurement of cytokine release, NO generation, expression of cyclooxygenase-2 and phosphorylation of mitogen activated protein kinases including p38 and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase using quantitative kits and Western blotting with specific antibodies.

Results: The isolation process yielded a potential anti-inflammatory compound with a purity level of 99% determined by high performance liquid chromatography. The compound was identified as MF by using nuclear magnetic resonance. MF strongly inhibited the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines from macrophages, including IL-6, TNFα, IFNγ, yet it did not affect the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. Phosphorylation of p38 and c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase were clearly reduced in MF-treated macrophages stimulated with lipopolysaccharide. cyclooxygenase-2 expression and NO generation by macrophages were also suppressed when the cells were treated with MF.

Conclusions: The data suggested that MF is a possible inhibitor of the mitogen activated phosphor kinase pathway and could be a potential anti-inflammatory agent isolated for the first time in medicinal plant S. tuberosa.

Keywords: Inflammation; Macrophage; Stemona tuberosa; Toll-like 4 receptor.