Abstract
Marine natural products have been the focus of discovery for new products of chemical and pharmacological interest. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antinociceptive activity of the methanolic (ME), acetate (AE), hexanic (HE) and chloroform (CE) extracts obtained from Caulerpa mexicana, and ME, CE and HE obtained from Caulerpa sertularioides. These marine algae are found all over the world, mainly in tropical regions. Models such as the writhing test, the hot plate test and formalin-induced nociception test were used to evaluate antinociceptive activity in laboratory mice. In the writhing test, all the extracts were administered orally at a concentration of 100 mg/kg, and induced high peripheral antinociceptive activity, with a reduction in the nociception induced by acetic acid above 65%. In the hot plate test, treatment with extracts from C. sertularioides (100 mg/kg, p.o.) did not significantly increase the latency of response, although the ME, AE and HE from C. mexicana showed activity in this model. This result suggests that these extracts exhibit antinociceptive activity. In the formalin test, it was observed that ME, AE and HE obtained from C. mexicana reduced the effects of formalin in both phases. On the other hand only CE from C. sertularioides induced significant inhibition of the nociceptive response in the first phase. To better assess the potential anti-inflammatory activity of the extracts, the carrageenan-induced peritonitis test was used to test Caulerpa spp. extracts on cell migration into the peritoneal cavity. In this assay, all extracts evaluated were able to significantly inhibit leukocyte migration into the peritoneal cavity in comparison with carrageenan. These data demonstrate that extracts from Caulerpa species elicit pronounced antinociceptive and anti-inflamatory activity against several nociception models. However, pharmacological and chemical studies are continuing in order to characterize the mechanism(s) responsible for the antinociceptive action and also to identify the active principles present in the Caulerpa species.
Highlights
The search for pharmacological properties from natural products has led to the discovery of pharmacologically active substances, with important applications both in the experimental field and identification of active principles with therapeutic interest [1,2,3,4,5]
The pharmacological evaluation of extracts of C. sertularioides in the writhing test showed that the HE, CE, AE and ME induced inhibition of 66.5%, 67.0%, 60.7% and 67.0%, respectively
These data corroborate a previous study on antinociceptive activity of Caulerpa racemosa [40]
Summary
The search for pharmacological properties from natural products has led to the discovery of pharmacologically active substances, with important applications both in the experimental field and identification of active principles with therapeutic interest [1,2,3,4,5]. About 25–30% of all active principles used in treatments are extracted from natural products [6]. It should be noted that marine natural products have been the focus of discovery of new products of chemical and pharmacological interest [12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. Only about 20% of natural products from around the world have had their extracts submitted to pharmacological or biological tests [19]. Extinction of many species has become more frequent, with an estimated thousand species becoming extinct each year on the planet. Many of these species have not yet even been described, cataloged or studied [20]
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