Natural Populations of Galphimia spp. Attenuates In Vitro and In Vivo Inflammatory Responses

The genus Galphimia , Malpighiaceae, is widely distributed in Mexico and represented by 22 species including medicinal species. The sedative and anti-inflammatory effects of galphimines produced by the species Galphimia glauca Cav. have been documented. Formerly, molecular studies using DNA barcodes demonstrated that nine populations botanically classified as G. glauca belong to four different species of the genus Galphimia and that only one exhibited the sedative properties; however, all the collected species showed anti-inflammatory activity. The aim of this work was to determine the anti-inflammatory activity of methanolic extracts of nine Galphimia spp. populations grown in Mexico. The possible modes of action were analyzed by evaluating the inhibition of LPS-induced inflammation processes both in vitro and in vivo . Using RAW 264.7 murine macrophage cells, all extracts significantly reduced the nitrite production. Thus, the possible relevance of galphimines was studied. One galphimine-producer population and one galphimine-non-producer population were selected, and their anti-inflammatory potential against systemic and central LPS-induced inflammation in mice was evaluated. In the periphery, both populations significantly reduced macrophage and dendritic cell activation. Similarly, both extracts reduced Iba1 expression in the hippocampus. Therefore, the presence of galphimines did not mediate the observed anti-inflammatory effects. Graphical abstract