title: Isolation and Identification of a Flavone Apigenin from Marine Red Alga Acanthophora spicifera with Antinociceptive and Anti-Inflammatory Activities.
abstract: Physicochemical investigation of the red alga Acanthophora spicifera (Vahl) Borgesen, collected from Al-Shoaiba coast, Red Sea, Saudi Arabia, led to the isolation of a flavone from the algal tissue with acetone. Preparative chromatography on silica gel thin-layer chromatography was used for the separation of the flavone and eluted with the methanol:chloroform:ethyl acetate (1:7:2) solvent system. The physicochemical analyses infrared, mass spectra, and ultraviolet spectra in addition to shift reagents (NaOMe, NaOAc, NaOAc + H3BO3, AlCl3, and AlCl3 + HCl) were used for the identification and elucidation of the structure of the flavone compound (4,5,7-trihydroxy flavonoids). The flavone compound was identified as apigenin bycomparing its physicochemical data with those in the literature. Analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities of apigenin were evaluated. Apigenin showed promising analgesic and anti-inflammatory activities in the hot plate test and writhing test in mice as well as tail-immersion tests and carrageenan-induced paw edema and cotton pellet-induced granuloma formation in rats. It is concluded that apigenin possesses potent analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antiproliferative activities, which might be due to the inhibition of PGE2 as well as proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α.
authors.affiliation: Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.
authors.forename: Gihan A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: El Shoubaky
authors.affiliation: Pharmacology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.
authors.forename: Mohamed M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Abdel-Daim
authors.affiliation: Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.
authors.forename: Mohamed H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Mansour
authors.affiliation: Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.
authors.forename: Essam A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Salem
keywords: Acanthophora spicifera; analgesic; anti-inflammatory; apigenin; infrared; mass spectra; physicochemical analysis; ultraviolet spectra