Biological activities of medicinal plant extracts on arthritis induced by formalin and on tumoral process.

Abstract

The natural products from plants and biological sources still remain an unlimited and uncondensed source of new phytochemicals and nutraceuticals. Medicinal plants have been prescribed and used widely for thousands of years to treat several disorders and ailments in folk herbal medicine systems all around the world and have been considered as an effective approach to control various disorders such as autoimmune diseases, inflammation and cancers. In the present study, we evaluated the in vivo effect of two endemic species belonging to the genus Stachys (Stachys circinata and Stachys mialhesi) harvested in Djebel El-Ouahch Constantine on the toxicity, immunomodulatory, anti-oxidant and anti-arthritis activities. The toxicity assessment was evaluated using the “up and down” method, the immunomodulatory activity was performed in the reticulo-endothelial system using carbon clearance assay, the in vivo antioxidant evaluation from liver homogenate on oxidative stress markers as catalase (CAT) and reduced glutathione (GSH) was investigated and the anti-arthritic effect was studied by the formalin-induced arthritis test. All the in-vivo experiments were performed in Mus musculus mice. The results showed that the extracts of medicinal plants did not produce any signs of toxicity and the LD resulted > than 2000mg/kg, also increased significantly the phagocytic activity at all tested concentrations but the clearance rate was faster at 150mg/kg for both extracts, and have antioxidant effect by stimulating the release of CAT and GSH from liver. Furthermore, the extracts of our plants have accelerate the anti-inflammatory activity by a significant decrease of the edema size, anti-CCP values and CRP. Moreover, in the present thesis, we performed a study in-vitro to evaluate the antiproliferative effect of the plant extracts on liver cancer cell line (HepG2), breast cancer cell line (MCF7), phaeochromocytoma cell line (PC12) and on healthy cells: human endothelial cells (HUVEC). Another study has been carried to assess the anti-oxidant effect of plant extracts on HepG2 cells. The results revealed that the extracts of Stachys circinata and Stachys mialhesi led to a selective cytotoxic activity against cancer cell lines in dose dependent manner while, no cytotoxicity against normal cells. Our results showed also a high significant increase of CAT activity and GSH levels in liver cancer cells (HepG2) treated with the different concentrations of plant extracts, compared to control.