Anti-inflammatory activity of Mitraphylline isolated from Uncaria tomentosa bark

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Uncaria tomentosa (Willd. ex Roem. & Schult.) DC. (Rubiaceae) is widely used by populations living in South America to treat many ailments associated with inflammatory disorders. Mitraphylline was shown to be the major pentacyclic oxindolic alkaloid present in the bark chloroformic extract of this plant. Its activity against cytokines involved in inflammation process was tested in a murine model in vivo. Materials and methods: Mice received mitraphylline once a day for 3 days at 30 mg/kg/day by oral route. Then, they were subjected to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) endotoxin (15 mg/kg) and the LPS-induced production of 16 different cytokines was determined by Elisa multiplex. Control group received dexamethasone orally at 2 mg/kg/day. Toxicity on K565 cells and murine peritoneal macrophages, in vitro, at doses up to 100 mM was monitored by XTT-colorimetric assay.