Abstract:
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease having a global
importance. The role of bioactive plant compounds and their role as an anti inflammatory have been described earlier. Cinnamomum verum is a plant
indegenious to the subcontinent. The objective of this study was to characterize the
bioactive components in Cinnamomum verum extracts, to isolate cinnamaldehyde
and later show its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative function in vivo and in
vitro. Cinnamaldehyde was found to be present in dried extracts of Cinnamomum
verum, characterization was performed using FTIR which showed a high
percentage of benzene C=C bond stretching as well as C=O bond stretching,
indicative of an aldehydic group. GC-MS confirmed the prescence of
cinnamaldehyde in our samples due to the presence of cinnamaldehyde peaks
observed after mass spectrophotometery. XRD showed a cubic crystalline structure
of carbon, indicative of the unique structure of cinnamaldehyde crystals.
A BALB/c collagen induced model was designed to via histopathological
changes, and gross morphological changes. Extracts showed good ameliorative
effects (p<0.05) after day 2 of treatment. A greater therapeutic role was observed
for the 4 mg/kgBW dosage of the methanolic extract (p<0.01). The anti-oxidative
potential of cinnamaldehyde was shown as it inhibited LPS stimulated murine
lymphocytes (p<0.05) as well as had significant DPPH inhibition (p<0.05). Higher
doses of the methanolic extracts however showed better inhibition (p<0.01). DNA
damage was observed via the comet assay, DNA damage was shown as a result of
oxidative damage. There were comet tails in arthritic mice, showing the elevated
DNA damage. The extract fed groups had a lower level of DNA damage in a dose
dependant manner (p<0.05 to p<0.01). There was also an inhibitory role by the
extracts on NFATc3 (p<0.05), TNF-Alpha (p<0.05), CAII (p<0.05) and mCalpain
(p<0.05) all proteins involved in the progression of RA.
It has been shown in this study that cinnamaldehyde has an anti-arthritic
and anti-inflammatory role due to its inhibitory and anti-oxidative functioning.
