Introduction
Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill is a xerophyte plant belonging tothe Cactaceae family. Its cladodes have been traditionally used asa folk medicine due to their hypoglycemic, antioxidant, apoptotic,antibacterial, antifungal and anti-inflammatory activities
These biological effects have been attributed mainly tothe flavonoids content, being the most abundant several types ofisorhamnetin glycosides
Flavonoids modulate the inflammatory response affecting thenitric oxide (NO) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) pathways and alsoby a significant down-regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokinessuch as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) production
Isorhamnetin possesses anti-inflammatory effects throughinhibiting the NF-B activation and the COX-2 gene expression
Isorhamnetin-3-O-galactoside, besides inhibiting the NF-B activation, suppressedthe production of TNF-
The number and posi-tion of the sugar moieties affect the anti-inflammatory activity offlavonoids
The purpose ofthis study was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory effects of an O.ficus-indica (L.) Mill extract and two isolated isorhamnetin glyco-sides on the inflammatory mediators NO, COX-2, IL-6 and TNF-using an in vivo inflammation model.