Flavonoids are the most abundant natural
polyphenols widely distributed in plants. Among them,
chrysin has recently attracted the attention for its anti-
tumor and
anti-oxidant activities and also for its protective effects on allergic
inflammation. Therefore, in this study, we set out to investigate and characterize the effects of
chrysin in classical models of
inflammation reasoning that this would expand our knowledge on the pharmacological properties of this
flavone. To this aim we have firstly isolated
chrysin from Potentilla evestita Th. Wolf. and successively evaluated its anti-inflammatory and
analgesic potential on writhing and
formalin test and also on
carrageenan-induced paw oedema. Finally, the present study was planned to investigate, by the aim of docking analysis, the molecular interaction of this compound on the binding site of COX-1 and COX-2
enzymes. On writhing test, we observed a significant inhibition of writhings after the administration of
chrysin at 5.0 and 10.0 mg/kg i.p. (25.00±9.22% and 55.67±7.62% respectively). On
formalin test, the
flavone at dose of 10.0 mg/kg i.p. displayed its maximum
analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect on both early (35.67±7.88%) and late phase (50.57±5.36%) and similarly displayed at 4h a significant anti-inflammatory effect in
carrageenan-induced paw oedema. Moreover, in silico analysis of receptor
ligand complex shows that
chrysin interacts weakly with COX-1 binding site whereas displayed a remarkable interaction with COX-2. These findings suggest that the
flavone chrysin isolated from P. evestita Th. Wolf. possesses in vivo anti-inflammatory and anti-nociceptive potential, which are supported in silico by an interaction with COX-2 binding site.