Abstract
Ageratum fastigiatum (Gardner) R.M. King & H. Rob., a member of the Asteraceae family popularly known in Brazil as “matapasto”, is indicated in folk medicine as anti-inflammatory and analgesic. Despite its popular use, little is known about its potential effect on the parameters involved in an inflammatory response. The objective of this study was to characterize the chemical composition of the essential oil from A. fastigiatum and to evaluate the frequency of tumor necrosis factor alpha and interferon gamma producing cells in peripheral blood lymphocytes stimulated with phorbol myristate acetate in the presence of essential oil from A. fastigiatum. Non-toxic concentrations of essential oil from A. fastigiatum were evaluated in cultures of peripheral blood leucocytes using the trypan blue exclusion assay by flow cytometry. GC–MS analysis revealed that the prevalent compounds identified in the essential oil from A. fastigiatum sample were α-pinene, limonene, trans-caryophyllene, α-humulene, caryophyllene oxide, 1,2-humulene-epoxide, 1,6-humulanodien-3-ol, and α-cadinol. Results showed that exposure to essential oil from A. fastigiatum at concentrations of 0.5 × 10−2 and 1 × 10−2 μl/ml caused no alterations in leukocyte viability as compared to the control group. Both concentrations lowered the percentage of tumor necrosis factor alpha (+)-lymphocytes and neutrophils. There were no changes in the percentage of lymphocytes positive for the interferon gamma cytokine. Our results suggest that part of the anti-inflammatory activity attributed to A. fastigiatum may be due to the effect of some of its components in decreasing the number of cells that produce the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha.
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Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the Brazilian funding agencies FAPEMIG (APQ-01626-13) and CNPq (Processo n. 476367/2011-5) and CAPES for financial support, as well as to the Multicentric Post-graduate Program in Physiological Science and Center for Research in Natural and Synthetic Products, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo for providing infrastructure to perform the analysis in GC-MS.
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BAA (PhD student) contributed in collecting plant sample and identification, confection of herbarium, running the laboratory work, analyzing the data and drafted the paper and contributed to biological studies. VGA, MGS and JATS contributed to biological studies. PRB, CFFG and LEG contributed in plant identification and herbarium confection and to chromatographic analysis. ERV and GEBAM designed the study, supervised the laboratory work and contributed to critical reading of the manuscript. All the authors have read the final manuscript and approved the submission.
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Avelar-Freitas, B.A., Almeida, V.G., Santos, M.G. et al. Essential oil from Ageratum fastigiatum reduces expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha in peripheral blood leukocytes subjected to in vitro stimulation with phorbol myristate acetate. Rev. Bras. Farmacogn. 25, 129–133 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjp.2015.03.002
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bjp.2015.03.002