1: J Ethnopharmacol. 2008 Jan 4;115(1):25-9. Epub 2007 Sep 4. Anti-inflammatory compounds from leaves and root bark of Alchornea cordifolia (Schumach. & Thonn.) Müll. Arg. Mavar-Manga H, Haddad M, Pieters L, Baccelli C, Penge A, Quetin-Leclercq J. Laboratoire de Pharmacognosie, Unité CHAM 72.30, Ecole de Pharmacie, Université catholique de Louvain, Av. E. Mounier, 72, 1200 Bruxelles, Belgium. Alchornea cordifolia is one of the most widely-used plants in traditional medicine throughout Africa, principally for inflammatory, antimicrobial and parasitic diseases. In continuation of our investigations on its anti-inflammatory activity, we fractionated the leaf and root bark extracts and isolated six compounds which exhibited significant topical anti-inflammatory activity in the mouse ear oedema model using croton oil at a dose of 90mug/cm(2). Daucosterol (2), acetyl aleuritolic acid (4), N1,N2-diisopentenyl guanidine (5) and N1,N2,N3-triisopentenyl guanidine (6) were shown to be more active than indomethacin, while beta-sitosterol (1) and di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (3) were less effective. This is the first report on the presence of compounds 1, 2, 3 and 4 in this plant and of the anti-inflammatory activity of 3, 5 and 6. These compounds may account, at least in part, for the use of A. cordifolia in folk medicine to treat inflammation. PMID: 17942256 [PubMed - in process] Related Links In vivo anti-inflammatory activity of Alchornea cordifolia (Schumach. & Thonn.) Müll. Arg. (Euphorbiaceae). [J Ethnopharmacol. 2004] PMID:15138002 Anti-inflammatory effects of crude methanolic extract and fractions of Alchornea cordifolia leaves. [J Ethnopharmacol. 2003] PMID:14522428 Screening of the topical anti-inflammatory activity of some Central American plants. [J Ethnopharmacol. 2002] PMID:12065153 Smooth muscle relaxing flavonoids from Alchornea cordifolia. [Acta Pharm Nord. 1990] PMID:2095800 Topical anti-inflammatory activity of Thymus willdenowii. [J Pharm Pharmacol. 2001] PMID:11804395