• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.3480-3482
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• 2011

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.293-297
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• 2006

The fruits of Evodia rutaecarpa Benth (Rutaceae) has long been used for inflammatory disorders and some anti-inflammatory actions of its constituents such as dehydroevodiamine, evodiamine and rutaecarpine were previously reported. Since the pharmacological data is not sufficient to clearly establish the scientific rationale of anti-inflammatory medicinal use of this plant material and the search for its active principles is limited so far, three major constituents (evodiamine, rutaecarpine, goshuyuamide II) were evaluated for their anti-inflammatory cellular action mechanisms in the present study. From the results, evodiamine and rutaecarpine were found to strongly inhibit prostaglandin $E_2$ synthesis from lipopolysaccharide-treated RAW 264.7 cells at $1-10{\mu}M$. Evodiamine inhibited cyclooxygenase-2 induction and NF-kB activation, while rutaecarpine did not. On the other hand, goshuyuamide II inhibited 5-lipoxygenase from RBL-1 cells $(IC_{50}=6.6{\mu}M)$, resulting in the reduced synthesis of leukotrienes. However, these three compounds were not inhibitory against inducible nitric oxide synthase-mediated nitric oxide production from RAW cells up to $50{\mu}M$. These pharmacological properties may provide the additional scientific rationale for anti-inflammatory use of the fruits of E. rutaecarpa.