Anti-Inflammatory And Antioxidant Effects Of Different Polar Fractions Of Dill (Anethum Graveolens L.)

Dill(Anethum graveolens L.), also named foreign Fennel, is the only one member of the dill Umbelliferae family. Dill is usually used as seasoning, which is also used as a common Uygur herb in China. Dill is cultivated in China nowadays, native in Netherland, which is used as material. By the bioassay guided method, the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of its different fractions were analyzed and the effective fractions were found. The relationship between antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacity was analyzed. The study provides a theoretical basis for further analysis of effective components.Four different fractions, such as petroleum ether faction, ethyl acetate fraction, n-butanol faction and water fraction, were obtained from ethanol extract of dill. With Vc as a positive control, antioxidant activities of different fractions of dill were evaluated with DPPH, ABTS, Reducing Power and FRAP. Results showed that all the investigated samples had strong antioxidant ability, and the strongest one was ethyl acetate fraction. The sequence was ethyl acetate fraction> n-butanol faction> water fraction> petroleum ether faction. The content of total phenol and flavonoid in different fractions of dill were determined, and the correlation for phenol and flavonoid contents with antioxidant capacity was determined:phenol and flavonoid should be responsible for highly effective antioxidant activity of various fractions of dill.RAW264.7 mouse macrophages were stimulated by LPS as inflammatory model. The production of various cytokines such as nitric oxide (NO), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) were determined by ELISA method, and the mRNA expression of iNOS, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-10 were investigated by the method of RT-PCR. The results showed that petroleum ether faction at 50μg/mL could remarkably inhibit inflammatory factors NO, IL-1β, IL-6, and enhance anti-inflammatory factor IL-10. Ethyl acetate fraction, n-butanol faction and water fraction showed no effect on these cytokines. Petroleum ether faction was identified to be responsible for anti-inflammatory activity of dill. This research provides new methods for isolating active components and new anti-inflammatory mechanism of dill.