Anti-Inflammatory Activity of the Constituents from the Leaves of Perilla frutescens var. acuta .

Perilla frutense var. acuta (Lamiaceae) has been used to treat indigestion, asthma, and allergies in traditional medicine. In this study, luteolin 7- O -diglucuronide ( 1 ), apigenin 7- O -diglucuronide ( 2 ), and rosmarinic acid ( 3 ) were isolated from the leaves of P. frutescens var. acuta through various chromatographic purification techniques. Several approaches were used to investigate the anti-inflammatory activity of the constituents ( 1 - 3 ) and their working mechanisms. In silico docking simulation demonstrated that 1 - 3 would work as a PPAR-α/δ/γ agonist, and in vitro PPAR-α/δ/γ transcriptional assay showed that the Perilla water extract (PWE) and 3 increased PPAR-α luciferase activity (1.71 and 1.61 times of the control (PPAR-α + PPRE, p < 0.001)). In the NF-κB luciferase assay, 1 suppressed NF-κB activity the most (56.83% at 5 µM; 74.96% at 10 µM; 79.86% at 50 µM). In addition, 1 and 2 inhibited the mRNA expression of NF-κB target genes, including Il6 , Mcp1 , and Tnfa , at 50 µM, and 3 suppressed the genes at the mRNA level in a dose-dependent manner. We report that 1 and 2 exert anti-inflammatory effects through NF-κB inhibition, and the PPAR-α/NF-κB signaling pathway is related to the anti-inflammatory activity of 3 .