Abstract
A study of agastachis herba on ovalbumin-induced asthma in the mouse
1College of Medicine, Dongguk University, Ilsan, Gyounggi-do, Korea 2Herbal Medicine Research Division, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, Korea 3School of Public Health, Far East University, Chungbuk, Korea 4School of n Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan, Korea
Correspondence Address:
S I Cho School of Korean Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan Korea E-mail: sicho@pusan.ac.kr
Agastachis Herba is one of the well-known medicinal herbs in Korean traditional medicine. This study was taken up to examine the beneficial effects of Agastachis Herba on a mice model of asthma. BALB/c mice were sensitized and challenged with ovalbumin to produce a murine model of asthma. Methanol extracts of Agastachis Herba were orally administered to the ovalbumin-induced asthmatic mice. The effects of methanol extract of Agastachis Herba on airway hyper responsiveness, immune cell distributions in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, ovalbumin-specific immunoglobulin E in serum, and histopathological changes were evaluated. Mice treated with the methanol extract of Agastachis Herba showed reduction of airway hyper responsiveness as well as inhibited immune cell infiltration in bronchoalveolar region. Also ovalbumin-specific immunoglobulin E levels in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid significantly decreased in extract treated mice. Histopathological findings showed significant beneficial changes in inflammatory cell infiltration.
