Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Extracts of Traditional Medicinal Plants Mixtures 1 and 2

This study was conducted to investigate traditional medicinal plants (TMP) 1 and 2, two different multi-herbal mixtures consisting of 24 herbs. Regarding the contents of flavonoid compounds, the ethanol extract (EE) of TMP2 yielded the highest content of flavonoid compounds (40.981 mg/g), fol-lowed by EE of TMP1 (28.23 mg/g), hot water extract of TMP2 (WE, 10.046 mg/g), and WE of TMP1 (6.59 mg/g). Antioxidant activities of EE and WE of TMP1 and TMP2 were measured based on DPPH radical scavenging activity. At 1 mg/ml, the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity was shown in EE of TMP2 (96%), followed by EE of TMP1 (94%). Nitric oxide (NO) production by RAW264.7 macrophage cells stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was reduced to 82, 77, 86, and 47 % by addition of 500 μg/ml of EE and WE of TMP1 and TMP2, respectively. These results were not due to the cytotoxicity of the extracts. NO synthesis was increased by 2.3, 3.6, 3.0, and 1.8 fold by addition of 500 μg/ml of EE and WE of TMP1 and TMP2, respectively. These results show that medicinal plants play a significant role in antioxidative activity and activation of the immune system in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases, and different mixtures of the medicinal plants showe