Analgesic, Anti-inflammatory Effects And Chemical Constituents Of Armadillidium Vulgare

Armadillidium Vulgare is the whole dried body of Latreille of Armadillidium. It is also called porcellio,porcellio scaber Latreille and piibug. It disbributes widely in Hebei,Shandong,Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. It is reported that extracts of Armadillidium Vulgare could deduce cancer pain and had anti-inflammatory effects in clinic.To investigate the analgesic, anti-inflammatory effects of Armadillidium Vulgare, we tested the ethanol and water extracts of Armadillidium Vulgare (AVA and AVW) in vitro and in vivo. The analgesic effects of AVA and AVW were tested using mice writhing induced by acetic acid. The results showed that AVA and AVW could delay the writhing response and reduce the writhing time significantly compared to the control group.The anti-inflammatory effects of AVA and AVW were tested by the colorimetric COX inhibitor screening assay in vitro. The results showed that AVA and AVW could inhibit the COX-1 and COX-2 activities. Ear edema model induced by xylene was used to observe the anti-inflammatory effects of AVA and AVW in vivo. The experiment showed that AVA and AVW could significantly inhibit the ear edema caused by xylene in mice.The chemical constituents of AVA were separated and purified by repeated column chromatography on silica gel, octadecylsilanized (ODS) silica gel, and preparative HPLC. Based on chemical characteristics and spectral analysis, the structures of these compounds were elucidated to beβ-sitosterol, cholesterol, ergosterol, 7 -OH cholesterol, 7β-OH cholesterol, octadecanoic acid, 9-octadecenoic acid, 2-aminopropionic acid, 2-pyrrolidine carboxylic acid and cinnamic acid.To discover COX-2 inhibitors in water extract of Armadillidium Vulgare(AVW), we used a ultrafiltration-LC-MS spectrometry technique for capturing the active compounds from water extract. We found that there were several compounds which could bind to COX-2 enzyme in AVW. According to the molecular weight search, several potential compouds were obtained. It provides some clues for the further purification.