Abstract

Tiago R. Pasquali, Sandra M. D. Macedo, Silvane S. Roman, Valéria Dal Prá, Rogério L. Cansian, Altemir J. Mossi, Vladimir J. Oliveira and Marcio A. Mazutti

This work reports the in vivo evaluation of acute toxicity and anti- inflammatory activity of supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) extracts of Ilex paraguariensis. For the acute toxicity study, the extracts diluted in sunflower oil were administered to adult male wistar rats in single doses of 250 mg/kg by the intraperitoneal route. Adverse effects and mortality were monitored along 14 days. In the case of anti-inflammatory activity, the animals were submitted to acute induced-peritonitis assays by injection of oyster glycogen and a single dose of 500 mg/kg of supercritical I. paraguariensis extract diluted in sunflower oil administered by subcutaneous injection. Results obtained in this work suggest the incidence of acute toxicity due to the presence of cells with hyperchromatism, vacuolization and tumefaction in the livers and the presence of cells with tumefaction in the cortical region of the kidneys of the treated group. It was also experimentally observed that treatment inhibited the neutrophil recruitment in the circulating blood, hence demonstrating the anti-inflammatory effect of the I. paraguariensis extracts. The results obtained may be very promising since they open new perspectives for the therapeutic use of supercritical extracts of I. paraguariensis or its preparations as anti-inflammatory agents.