The Volatile Oil Antipyretic Effects And Some Of Its Mechanism

The purpose of this study was to test the antipyretic action of essential oil of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort.(CH)and its mechanism. Fever was induced by lipopolysaccharide in rabbits and brewer's yeast in rats .The following indexes were observed:rectal temperature,endogenous pyrogen in. serum include interleukin-l(IL-l),interleukin-6(IL-6),tumor necrosis factor(TNFa),hypothalamic nonoa-mine contents in lipopolysaccharide-induced fever of rabbits,hypothalamic 3',5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2 ) in brewer's yeast-induced fever of rats etc. The re-suits indicate that CH have a obvious antipyretic action on both LPS-induced and brewer's yeast-induced fever,at the same time thecontents of endogenous pyrogen in serum such as IL-1 IL-6 decreased,The contents of hypothalamic cAMP and PGE2 decreased too;the contents of hypothalamic monoamines such as 5-hydroxytryptamine(5-HT),dopamine(DA) raised and 5-HIAA decreased in lipopolysaccharide-induced fever of rabbits. This prompted that the antipyretic mechanism of CH is probably to decrease the endogenous pyrogen in serum include IL-l,IL-6,TNFa and hypothalamic cAMP and PGE2 and simultaneously make an effect on the dopamine-5-hy-droxytryptamine link in the hypothalamic pathways,this finally make the set point down thereby exhibit an antipyretic effect. This research for the first time partially revealed the physiological and biochemical mechanism of CH's antipyretic action and offers an experimental basis for the further utilization of CH.