Antinociceptive and anti-rheumatoidal effects of Kalopanax pictus extract and its saponin components in experimental animals

In the present study, we have attempted to elucidate the active components for rheumatoidal arthritis using chloroform (CHCl3), ethylacetate (EtOAc) and n-butanol (BuOH) fractions of the methanol extract (MeOH) of Kalopanax pictus. Kalopanaxsaponin-A and -I (KPS-A and -I, hederagenin monodesmoside) were isolated from EtOAc fraction and kalopanaxsaponin-B, -H and -K (KPS-B, -H and -K, hederagenin bisdesmosides) obtained from BuOH fraction, respectively. MeOH extract, EtOAc fraction (250, 500 mg/kg, p.o.) and KPS-A and -I (5, 10, 20 mg/kg, i.p.) exhibited significant antinociceptive effects, which were determined by acetic acid-induced writhing test and hot plate test. On Freund's complete adjuvant reagent-induced rheumatoidal arthritis in rats, the administration of EtOAc fraction and KPS-A and -I inhibited edema, agglutination, vascular permeability and trypsin inhibitor. In addition, LD50 of the MeOH extract was shown to be 4.033 mg/kg. These results sua est that anti-rheumatoidal effects of K-PS-A and -I contribute to the inhibition of kinin formation by suppression of trypsin inhibitor activity. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.