Onion (Allium cepa) is one of the flavonoids-rich materials in human diet and onion peel, which is the onion byproducts, contains over 20 times more quercetin than the flesh. In this study, to examine the anti-inflammatory effects of onion peel hot water extract (OPHWE), the cell viability, nitric oxide (NO), pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interluekin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and IL-1β, were measured using the murine macrophage cell line RAW 264.7 cells. The Balb/c mice were used for an in vivo acute toxicity test and ICR mice were used for measurement of inhibition effects of croton oil-induced mouse ear edema. As a result, NO levels decreased in a dose-dependent manner. The production of IL-6, TNF-α, and IL-1β was suppressed by 38%, 41%, and 34% respectively, compared with that of the LPS only group, without any cytotoxicity. The edema formation in the ICR mouse ear was also reduced compared to that in control. Moreover, there were no mortalities occurred in mice administered 5,000 mg/kg body weight of OPHWE. These results suggest that OPHWE has considerable anti-inflammatory activities and can be regarded as a potent candidate material to treat inflammatory diseases.

No abstract

The present study was to investigate the antioxidant activity in ethanol and water extracts of root and stem of Sargassum coreanum. Antioxidant activities were evaluated by total polyphenol contents, DPPH radical scavenging activity, chelating effect, reducing power, and rancimat method. Total polyphenol contents of ethanol and water extracts were 32.79 mg/g and 15.55 mg/g, respectively. Ethanol extract showed higher DPPH radical scavenging activity than water extract and similar activity to BHT. Reducing power of extracts was increased in a concentration-dependent manner and ethanol extract had more reducing power than water extract. Ethanol and water extracts have little chelating effect at all concentrations. Antioxidant index (AI) of ethanol extract measured by Rancimat was higher than that of water extract, but their AI was lower than that of BHT. These results indicate that ethanol extract of S. coreanum root and stem has more potent antioxidant activity than water extract through DPPH radical scavenging and reducing power, and could potentially be used as a good source of natural antioxidants.

The anti-inflammatory effect of tuna heart water extract (THWE) was investigated using lipopolysaccharideinduced inflammatory response in this study. Anti-inflammatory effect was detected by the cell proliferation and the production levels of nitric oxide, pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-1β, and tumor necrosis factoralpha. As a result, there were no cytotoxic effects on proliferation of macrophages treated with THWE compared to the control. The production of pro-inflammatory cytokines was remarkably suppressed compared with that of the LPS only group. These results suggest that THWE exerts the anti-inflammatory property by inhibiting production of inflammatory factors and may be a potential material for anti-inflammatory therapy.