Abstract (eng)
The treatment of inflammation is a very important aspect in today’s pharmaceutical care. Therefore, it appears necessary to search for active agents in plants. Especially in Asia, extracts of Caesalpinia sappan are common alternatives when it comes to the treatment of inflammation.
Within the context of this diploma thesis, certain fractions of Caesalpinia sappan were tested for the release of cytokines (interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin-10) from macrophages and chondrocytes. The very strong anti-inflammatory effect of brazilin, regarding the secretion of interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha from chondrocytes, was already proven by previous studies. Also, fractions 2 and 4 reduced the interleukin-6 release as well as the tumor necrosis factor alpha secretion from chondrocytes and makrophages respectively to a sufficient degree, hence an anti-inflammatory effect can be assumed. For further research the apolar compounds could be an interesting starting point. They were summed up as fraction 7, which reduced the secrection of interleukin-6 of macrophages.
Furthermore, various storage studies were undertaken to describe the behavior of the fractions under long-term storage. Both storage studies, the one concerning the total extract of Caesalpinia sappan as well as the one concerning brazilin, showed reduction as well as redistribution reactions, which also could not be significantly prevented by adding ß-cyclodextrin. Furthermore, fractions 1 and 5 did not show high stability in acidic milieu, resulting in a continous redistribution to brazilin. Again ß- cyclodextrin did not boost stability. In a further step, the separation was optimized by using running buffers without acid, so that pure and stable fraction 1 and 5 could be obtained.