Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Immunomodulatory effect of anise (Pimpinella anisum) in BALB/c mice

Mariam M Al-Omari¹ , Arwa M Qaqish², Khaled M Al-Qaoud³

¹Faculty of Medicine, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan; ²Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA; ³Department of Biological Sciences, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan.

For correspondence:- Mariam Al-Omari Email: mariam.o@yu.edu.jo

Accepted: 19 March 2018 Published: 31 August 2018

Citation: Al-Omari MM, Qaqish AM, Al-Qaoud KM. Immunomodulatory effect of anise (Pimpinella anisum) in BALB/c mice. Trop J Pharm Res 2018; 17(8):1515-1521 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v17i8.8

© 2018 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of anise decoction consumption on lymphocytes activity, complete blood count (CBC) and nitric oxide (NO) production in BALB/c mice.

Methods: BALB/c mice were given anise tea instead of drinking water and the effect on selected immune parameters was analyzed after 1 and 2 weeks of treatment.

Results: Cell activity of anise treated mice was significantly higher than control group at week 2 as revealed by mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR2. The spleen cells of anise treated mice showed a significant higher lymphocyte proliferative response to in vitro challenge with phytohaemagglutinin (PHA).compared to controls at week two of treatment. The increase in mouse foot thickness as indicator of delayed type of hypersensitivity (DTH) was less in anise treated mice compared to control group. Nitric oxide production by peritoneal macrophages in response to activation with lipopolysaccharides (LPS) was reduced by anise treatment after 1 and 2 weeks of treatment andno significant changes in CD4 and CD8 were noticed either at week 1 or 2 of treatment.

Conclusion: This study provides preclinical evidence that anise possesses immunomodulatory activity when administered orally in mice and selectively activates cell-mediated immune mechanisms

Keywords: Immunomodulatory, Anise, Traditional medicine