Analgesic and Anti-inflammatory Activities of the Essential Oil from Artemisia aucheri Boiss

Abstract

Artemisia aucheri is a native plant to the south of Iran and used as a pain killer and for the treatment of some inflammatory based disorders. Regarding the presence of high content of volatile terpenoids in the plant we were prompted to investigate the analgesic and antiinflammatory activities of the essential oil from A. aucheri aerial parts in the animal models. The oil was also analyzed by GC and GC-MS in order to identify the potentially responsible compounds for observed properties. The analgesic activity of the oil was assessed by acetic acid-induced writhing and Eddy's hot plate methods while the acute anti-inflammatory effect was investigated by inflammatory paw edema in rat. The studied oil significantly decreased the number of acetic acid-induced writhes in mice compared with animals that received vehicle only. It also exhibited a central analgesic effect as evidenced by a significant increase in reaction time in the hot plate method. The oil also significantly reduced carrageenan induced paw edema in rats. The major components of the oil were characterized as camphor (51.0%) and 1,8-cineol (25.0%), which might be responsible for these observed activities. The results suggest that A. aucheri essential oil possesses biologically active constituent(s) that have significant activity against acute inflammation and have central and peripheral antinociceptive effects which support the ethnomedicinal claims of the plant application in the management of pain and inflammation.