African Journal of
Biotechnology

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Biotechnol.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1684-5315
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJB
  • Start Year: 2002
  • Published Articles: 12481

Full Length Research Paper

Anti-inflammatory evaluation of immature fruit and seed aqueous extracts from several populations of Tunisian Citrullus colocynthis Schrad

Belsem Marzouk1¥*, Zohra Marzouk2¥, Ehsen Haloui2, Manel Turki3, Abderrahman Bouraoui3, Mahjoub Aouni1 and Nadia Fenina2
1Laboratoire des Maladies Transmissibles et Substances Biologiquement Actives, Faculté de Pharmacie de Monastir, Rue AVICENNE 5000 Monastir, Tunisie. 2Unité de Pharmaco-économie et Développement des Médicaments, Laboratoires de Biologie Végétale et Laboratoire de Pharmacologie, Faculté de Pharmacie de Monastir, Tunisie. 3Unité de recherche URSAM,  Laboratoire de Pharmacologie, Faculté de Pharmacie, Monastir, Tunisie.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 21 February 2011
  •  Published: 16 May 2011

Abstract

Plant extracts are some of the most attractive sources of new drugs and have shown promising results for the treatment of inflammation and immune-related diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis. Citrullus colocynthis Schrad. (Cucurbitaceae) endemic in Tunisia, is widely used in folk medicine to treat many inflammation disorders. The aim of this study is to quantify the alkaloid and the flavonoid levels of different populations of C. colocynthis fruit and seed aqueous extracts at immature state. After acute toxicity assay, these extracts were screened for anti-inflammatory activity using the carrageenan-induced paw edema assay in rats. Alkaloid and flavonoid levels vary among the population. The best anti-inflammatory activities were obtained with immature fruits from south Tunisia. Therefore, C. colocynthis Schrad. could be a potential useful product suitable for further evaluation for inflammatory diseases.

 

Key words: Citrullus colocynthis Schrad., alkaloids, flavonoids, toxicity, anti-inflammatory, Tunisia.

Abbreviation

Abbreviations: TOF, Total oligomeric flavonoids; TLC, thin layer chromatography;ASL, acetyl salicylate of lysine.

 

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This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

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