Comparison of the antiinflammatory activities of three medicinal plants known as "meiduoluomi" in Tibetan folk medicine.

Erigeron breviscapus (Vant.) Hand-mazz (EB), Erigeron multiradiatus (Lindl.) Benth (EM), and Aster brachytrichus Franch (AB), confused under the vernacular name "meiduoluomi" by native people and traditional healers, have been used for the treatment of meningitis, polyneuritis, hepatitis, adenolymphitis, and enteronitis in traditional Tibetan medicine. In this study, the antiinflammatory activity of methanol extracts of all three plants was investigated in the xylene-induced ear edema model, carrageenan-induced paw edema model, and cotton pellet-induced granuloma model. It was found that the methanolic extracts of both EB and EM had strong inhibitory effects on the acute phase of inflammation in carrageenan-induced paw edema in rats. On the other hand, the methanolic extract of EM showed stronger effects than those of EB in xylene-induced ear edema. In the chronic test, the methanolic extracts of EB and EM resulted in a significant reduction in granuloma weight in rats. In addition, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity was strongly reduced in the EB-treated and EM-treated groups, which indicated that EB and EM can inhibit certain inflammatory modulator factors that cause neutrophil aggregation in inflamed tissue, e.g., nuclear factor-kappaB. However, the methanolic extracts of AB had no antiinflammatory effects in the tested models and MPO assay. The similar effects of EM and EB in tested models provided some scientific basis for the traditional usage of meiduoluomi in inflammatory disease. However, the results also suggest that further study is needed to investigate the antiinflammatory profile of AB and provide a scientific basis for the use of AB in inflammatory diseases.