Ethnopharmacological relevance: Salvia chudaei Batt. & Trab. from Algeria is traditionally used to relieve several dysfunctions, including inflammatory and pain-related
situations.
Aim of the study: This work aimed to confirm scientifically the referred properties. For that, the phenolic composition and antioxidant activity were evaluated as well
as acute toxicity, anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of different doses of the infusion of S. chudaei aerial parts.
Materials and methods: Infusion of aerial parts of S. chudaei was prepared and screened for phenolic composition by generalized methods TPC and TFC then by LCDAD-
ESI/MSn. DPPH and FRAP were used to evaluate antioxidant activity. Using mice, acute toxicity, anti-inflammatory by carrageenan-induced paw edema, and
analgesic by acetic acid-induced writhing and formalin-induced pain activities were tested.
Results: The infusion showed 2018 mg GAE/100g DW of phenolics and 1956 mg ECE/100g DW of flavonoids. Phenolic profile by LC-DAD-ESI/MSn revealed the
presence of ten compounds: syringic acid hexoside derivative, kaempferol-O-diglucuronide, kaempferol-O-deoxyhexoside-hexoside, kaempferol-O-glucuronide,
apigenin-O-diglucuronide, caffeic acid, 4-O-caffeoylquinic acid, eriodictyol-O-glucuronide, rosmarinic acid hexoside, and rosmarinic acid. This acid was the
major compound representing 54% of the total content of the identified compounds and an absolute content of 18 mg/g of extract. Additionally, the infusion
exhibited a good antioxidant activity (DPPH: 81 μmol TE/g DW, FRAP: 438 μmol FSE/g DW). By oral administration to mice, the infusion showed a significant
(p<0.05) dose-dependent reduction of carrageenan-induced inflammation and inhibition of formalin-induced pain (late and early phase) and acetic acid-induced
writhing compared with the control. On the other hand, infusion up to 8 g/kg b.w. showed no signs of toxicity or mortality.
Conclusion: This study reveals, for the first time, that the infusion of the aerial parts of S. chudaei is not toxic in a single dose and has remarkable antioxidant, antiinflammatory,
and analgesic activities, supporting the use of this species in folk medicine.
We thank the University of Porto for receiving R.S. and the MARE NOSTRUM 2017–2019 project allowing this mobility. This work was supported by AgriFood XXI I&D&I project (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-
000041) co-financed by ERDF through NORTE 2020 (Programa Operacional
Regional do Norte 2014/2020), by the UIDB/50006/2020
project with funding from FCT/MCTES through Portuguese funds, by the
Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) through national
funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020), and by the
Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MESRS) (Algeria).
