Saururus chinenesis Extracts Scavenge Reactive Oxygen Species and Modulate Nitric Oxide Production in Raw 264.7 Macrophages = Saururus chinenesis Extracts Scavenge Reactive Oxygen Species and Modulate Nitric Oxide Production in Raw 264.7 Macrophages

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Saururus chinensis Baill has been used in Korean folk medicine for the treatment of various diseases such as edema, jaundice, and furuncle. The components of this plant were extracted into four fractions. Among the four fractions, hexane and ethyl acetate fractions were highly toxic to 3T3 mouse embryo fibroblast and Raw 264.7 mouse macrophage, but n-butanol and residue fractions did not show any toxic effect to those cell lines. n-Butanol and residue fractions exhibited antioxidant effects on hydrogen peroxide, hydroxyl radical, and superoxide anion directly in vitro and in the 3T3 fibroblasts. All the four fractions inhibited lipid peroxidation measured by thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) formation. In addition, n-butanol and residue fractions showed inhibitory effects on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitric oxide production, and also down-regulated inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA transcription 6h after LPS stimulation in Raw 264.7 cells. Only n-butanol fraction, which mainly consists of flavonoids, inhibited NF-kB activation by decreasing IκBa degradation 90 min after LPS stimulation. From the results, it is suggested that this plant could be a good candidate material for drug development based on its antioxidant and/or anti-inflammatory constituents.