title: Artemisia annua L.: evidence of sesquiterpene lactones' fraction antinociceptive activity.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Artemisia annua L. has been used for many centuries in Chinese traditional medicine. Artemisinin, the active principle was first isolated and identified in the 1970s becoming the global back bone to the fight against malaria. Our research group previously developed an economic and ecological friendly process to obtain this compound. In the pursuit to also exploit the residue generated throughout the process we further evaluated the pharmacological potential of that extract.
  
  
  METHODS
  The alcoholic crude extract after artemisinin precipitation maintained an enriched sesquiterpene lactones content with residue artemisinin (1.72%) and deoxyartemisinin (0.31%), used as chemical markers for this sample. This study evaluated the pharmacological potential of the enriched sesquiterpene lactone fraction (Lac-FR) on different nociceptive and inflammatory experimental animal models. Previous findings on the biological properties of lactones obtained from natural products permitted us to explore the antinociceptive activities of these compounds based on in vivo chemical-induced behavioral assays.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The enriched sesquiterpene lactone fraction (Lac-FR) was administrated by intraperitoneal injection producing a relevant reduction in the reaction time of the animals in both phases of the formalin test, significantly reduced the sensitivity to mechanical allodynia stimulus, reduced the paw edema caused by carrageenan injection and promoted high antinociceptive activity in tail flick model suggesting relationship with the opioid system. Further studies are being undertaken to elucidate the active components involved with the antinociceptive activity as well as evaluation of synergy effect that is seen by combination of substances that is greater than would be expected from consideration of individual contributions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For the first time, results presented herein provided consistent data to support the potential use of these lactones for pain relief as revealed by chemical-induced nociception assays in mice.
authors: CPQBA, University of Campinas, P,O, Box 6171, 13083-970 Campinas, SP, Brazil. fabricioffavero@gmail.com.
authors: Fabricio de Faveri
authors: Fde F
authors: Favero
authors: Rogério
authors: R
authors: Grando
authors: Fabiana R
authors: FR
authors: Nonato
authors: Ilza M M
authors: IM
authors: Sousa
authors: Núbia C A
authors: NC
authors: Queiroz
authors: Giovanna B
authors: GB
authors: Longato
authors: Rafael R T
authors: RR
authors: Zafred
authors: João E
authors: JE
authors: Carvalho
authors: Humberto M
authors: HM
authors: Spindola
authors: Mary A
authors: MA
authors: Foglio
mesh_terms: D000700:Analgesics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D031172:Artemisia annua / Q000737:chemistry*; D037621:Artemisinins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects; D002351:Carrageenan; D004487:Edema / Q000188:drug therapy; D007783:Lactones / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D059225:Nociception / Q000187:drug effects*; D010146:Pain / Q000188:drug therapy; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D000700:Analgesics; D037621:Artemisinins; D007783:Lactones; D010936:Plant Extracts; D002351:Carrageenan