Cytotoxic and Anti-inflammatory Activities of Medicinal Plants and Women’s Health Remedy Found in “Mahachotarat Scripture” of Thai Traditional Medicine.

Background: “Mahachotarat” is a lesson for woman’s care from the Thai traditional medicine book, composed of both medicinal plants and herbal remedies that can treat both pain and cervical cancer. Medicinal plants and herbal remedies, which have often been used in the treatment of pain and cancer, were selected to investigate for biological activity related to woman’s health. They were Boesenbergia rotunda Linn, Piper nigrum Linn, Zingiber cassumunar Roxb, Zingiber officinale Roscoe, Zingiber zerumbet (L) Smith, Dioscorea birmanica Prain & Burkill including its ingredient; Prosapogenin A of dioscin and Leard-ngam remedy.

An in vitro inhibitory effect on RAW 264.7 cells by anti-inflammatory compounds from Smilax corbularia Kunth.

Background: Smilax corbularia is a Thai medicinal plant locally known as 'Hua-Khao-Yen Neua', which is used for treating inflammatory conditions.

Objective: To evaluate the anti-inflammatory effect of S. corbularia extracts and its isolated compounds by determination of inhibitory effects on lipopolysaccharide-stimulated PGE2 release, and TNF-alpha and NO production from RAW 264.

Cytotoxic saponin against lung cancer cells from Dioscorea birmanica Prain & Burkill.

Objective: To investigate the cytotoxic activity against lung cancer cells of Dioscorea birmanica Prain & Burkill extract and its compounds.

Material And Method: Cytotoxic activity was tested against two types of lung cancer cell line (A549 and CORL-23), one type of normal lung cell (MRC-5) by sulforhodamine B assay. Bioassay guide fractionation was used for isolating cytotoxic compounds.