Preventive Effect of Crocin in Inflamed Animals and in LPS-Challenged RAW 264.7 Cells

Gardenia jasminoides Ellis and Crocus sativus L. are both traditional Chinese medicines that have significant biologic activities oil inflammatory processes But the active ingredients remain unclear Crocin, a representative of carotenoid compounds, has now drawn considerable attention not only because it is a natural food colorant but also because it has great potential in medicine But until now. the systematic anti inflammatory effect of crocin has not been well established In the present study, e periments were carried out to evaluate the anti inflammatory effects of crocin in vitro and in vivo hi vitro, cycloo ygenase (COX) inhibition assays showed that crocin exhibits a dual inhibitory activity against the CO and CO 2 en ymes Anti inflammatory activity in vivo was evaluated using two animal edema model tests Pretreatment with crocin (p.o.) dose-dependently inhibited the xylene-induced ear edema in mice and carrageenan induced paw edema in rats In gastric lesion tests. crocin was gastric sparing in that it elicited markedly fewer stomach lesions as compared to the number of stomach lesions caused by indomethacin in rats In Further studies, crocin was found to significantly inhibit the productions of prostaglandin E-2 (PGE(2)) in lipopolysaccharide (LIPS) -challenged RAW 26 7, which is parallel to its prevention of the nuclear translocation of the NF kappa B p50 and p65 subunits These data indicate that crocin e hibits obvious anti inflammatory effects and may be one of the active ingredients in Gardenia jasminoides Ellis or Crocus sativus L. that can modulate inflammatory processes