Phenolic compounds, in vivo anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic activities of the aqueous extracts from fresh and dry aerial parts of Brocchia cinerea (Vis.).

Aerial parts of Brocchia cinerea (Vis.) (Asteraceae family) are traditionally used for the treatment of pain, fever and inflammation. The present study aimed to investigate the phenolic profile, the acute oral toxicity, and anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic activities of the aqueous extracts from fresh (FBC) and dry (DBC) aerial parts of Brocchia cinerea (Vis.). Phenolic profile from FBC and DBC was characterized by HPLC-PDA/ESI-MS. The anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic of both FBC and DBC were evaluated by carrageenan induced paw edema, acetic acid induced writhing and brewer's yeast-induced pyrexia in Wistar rats, respectively. The results achieved showed that thirteen phenolic compounds were detected in the aqueous extracts obtained from the aerial parts of FBC and DBC, highlighting a quite different quantitative profile. The FBC and DBC administrated orally at a dose of 400 mg/kg significantly reduced edema, after 2 h of the injection of carrageenan (p < 0.001) with a percentage inhibition of 47.73% and 50.01% respectively. On the other hand the rats treated with DBC at the same dose significantly lowered the writhing induced by the injection of acetic acid (18.52 ± 0.38) with respect to the ones treated with FBC (20.47 ± 0.92). Moreover, a significant reduction in rectal temperature was observed in rats treated with FBC/DBC and at doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg. Furthermore, no acute toxicity symptoms were observed on oral administration of all doses of both FBC and DBC in Wistar rats. The results of the present study indicate that the aerial part of Brocchia cinerea extracts exhibit strongly anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antipyretic properties and they can be potentially used in the treatment of inflammation, pain and fever.