Du Junrong, Yu Yan, Ke Ya, Wang Chenyuen, Zhu Li, Qian Zhong Ming
Department of Applied Biology & Chemical Technology and National Key Laboratory of Chinese Medicine and Molecular Pharmacology (Shenzhen), Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, PR China.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2007 May 30;112(1):211-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2007.02.007. Epub 2007 Feb 11.
Danggui is a popular traditional Chinese medicinal (TCM) herb, which has long been used clinically to treat primary dysmenorrhoea. In a recent study, we demonstrated that ligustilide (LIG), one of the main compounds of Danggui essential oil, has multiple effects on uterine smooth muscles and possesses a non-specific antispasmodic function, which suggests that LIG might play a major role in the therapeutic activity of Danggui in primary dysmenorrhoea. Since pain is the main syndrome of dysmenorrhea, the present investigation was carried out to evaluate the analgesic activity of LIG in vivo. LIG was intra-gastrically administered to animals. We demonstrated for the first time that LIG could cause a significant dose-related reduction of acetic acid-induced writhing response and formalin-induced licking time in both the early and late phases. These results showed that LIG possessed antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities. These findings plus the data we reported recently implied that LIG not only has an active dilatory effect on myometrium but also an effective role in reducing the neurogenic and inflammatory pain, thus having the potential to be developed into an effective drug for the treatment of various pain syndromes including primary dysmenorrhoea.
当归是一种常用的传统中药，长期以来一直用于临床治疗原发性痛经。在最近的一项研究中，我们证明了当归精油的主要成分之一藁本内酯（LIG）对子宫平滑肌有多种作用，并具有非特异性解痉功能，这表明LIG可能在当归治疗原发性痛经的活性中起主要作用。由于疼痛是痛经的主要症状，因此进行了本研究以评估LIG在体内的镇痛活性。将LIG经胃内给予动物。我们首次证明，LIG可在早期和晚期引起乙酸诱导的扭体反应和福尔马林诱导的舔舐时间的显著剂量相关减少。这些结果表明LIG具有抗伤害感受和抗炎活性。这些发现以及我们最近报道的数据表明，LIG不仅对子宫肌层有积极的扩张作用，而且在减轻神经源性和炎性疼痛方面也有有效作用，因此有可能开发成为治疗包括原发性痛经在内的各种疼痛综合征的有效药物。
