Preventive effects of unsei-in and oren-gedoku-to, Chinese traditional medicines, against rat paw oedema and abdominal constriction in mice.

Oren-gedoku-to and Unsei-in are complex mixtures of ingredients derived from plants. These two drugs are clinically most frequently used in the treatment of Behçet's disease, we have investigated the anti-inflammatory and analgesic actions of Oren-gedoku-to and Unsei-in using a battery of tests; rat paw oedema induced by five different agents; abdominal constriction; mouse ear swelling; and dye leakage tests, designed to clarify the therapeutic potential of these medicines. The findings in this study that these medicines are able to inhibit the rat paw oedema, suppress the abdominal constriction and inhibit the increased dye permeability confirm the analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects of these compounds. From these results there seems a clear rationale for exploring the effectiveness of these Chinese medicines in the treatment of chronic and acute inflammatory diseases.