Analgesic and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Herbal Mixture Extracts in Mice

Herbal mixture extracts (HME) comprised of Semen Sojae Nigrum, Fructus Cnidii, Radix Glycyrrhizae, and Cornu Cervi. Herein, we employed three mouse models, including hot-plate test, acetic acid (AA)-induced writhing test and AA-induced vascular permeability test, to determine analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of HME. Results revealed that HME exhibited analgesic effects in hot-plate test and in AA-induced writhing test, as evidenced by increasing the latency to lick paws and decreasing AA-induced writhing counts, respectively. HME also significantly and dose-dependently decreased AA-induced vascular permeability, indicating HME exhibited anti-inflammatory effects. Similar improvement can be observed in aspirin treatment that used as positive control in this study. Most of medicinal effects of Fructus Cnidii are considered to attribute to coumarins, such as osthol (OST) and imperatorin (IMP) with several pharmacological activities. We then used OST and IMP as bioactive components in HME. The content of OST and IMP in HME was 3.57 ± 0.10 mg/g and 1.20 ± 0.02 mg/g, respectively, from three independent batches. Only OST possessed inhibitory effects in three mouse models, suggesting that OST may partially involve in protective effects of HME. These results demonstrated that HME has a potential on anti-analgesic effects and anti-inflammatory actions.