Screening of Novel Natural Product Derived Compounds for Drug Discovery in Inflammation

Natural products are often a source for bioactive compounds which have great potential for developing novel therapeutic agents. The present study was to evaluate anti-inflammatory potential of six compounds A: Raffinose, B: Sucrose, C: Benzoic acid, D: Trehalose, E: Quinic Acid and F: Ferulic acid on bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced inflammation in RAW 264.7 macrophages by employing in vitro methods: nitric oxide (NO) and Nitro blue tetrazolium (NBT) assays. These compounds are found in many plants, including palm, date palm, pomegranate, custard apple, wood apple, water chestnut and Indian plum, among others and it has been found that many of these compounds are effective anti-inflammatory agents, with anti-oxidant activities. The study revealed that compound C exhibited maximum anti-inflammatory activity at a concentration as low as one ng/ml. Compounds A, B and E also showed anti-inflammatory activity but at a higher concentration but compound D and F did not show antiinflammatory activity.