Anti-inflammatory activity of flavonoids from Cayaponia tayuya roots.

Taiuiá or tayuya (Cayaponia tayuya, Cucurbitaceae) is a climbing, lignified plant with a large swollen root that has traditionally been used as an anti-inflammatory and anti-rheumatic agent in the folk medicine of Brazil, Peru, and Colombia.We have assayed the pharmacological properties of a flavonoid fraction obtained from the butanol extract of Cayaponia tayuya roots using two models of topical mouse ear oedema, paying special attention to its influence on the induction on pro-inflammatory enzymes and peptidic mediators.The in vivo experiments involved both the acute oedema induced by a single application of TPA and the subchronic inflammation brought on by repeated applications of TPA. T…