Bangladesh Journal of Pharmacology Volume: 11; Number 2; Year 2016 Cite this article as: Saleem H, Ahmad I, Gill MSA. Evaluation of lipoxygenase inhibition of Jatropha gossypifolia, a medicinal plant from Pakistan. Bangladesh J Pharmacol. 2016; 11: 319-20. Evaluation of lipoxygenase inhibition of Jatropha gossypifolia, a medicinal plant from Pakistan Sir, Inflammation is a common process by which the destruction of cells leading to various unrelated disorders like, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, heart diseases, stroke, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, etc can be precede. Inflammation persists when immune system is continuously activated and this chronic inflammation leads to continued destruction of cells which results to chronic diseases (Arumugam et al., 2011). Inflammatory mediators are soluble, many of which may be regarded as local hormones and play a key role in the orchestratrion of the inflammatory response. These inflammatory media- tors are mainly tissue products such as histamine, sero- tonin, prostanoids, leukotrienes, platelet activating factor, bradykinin, neuropeptides, cytokines, lipoxins, chemokine and interferons. Lipoxins are the products of lipoxygenases and chemically conjugated trihydroxyl tetracenes (Mayes and Botham, 2003). Lipoxygenases (LOs) are a family of iron containing enzymes that catalyse the dioxygenation of polyunsatu- rated fatty acids in lipids containing a cis,cis-1,4- pentadiene structure. They convert arachidonic acid (a component of membrane phospholipids) into leuko- trienes (pro-inflammatory mediators) which are a group of highly potent molecules possessing diverse biological actions (Samuelsson, 1983). Jatropha gossypifolia (Linn) belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae is a perennial, erect shrub or small tree usually about 2.5 m tall but which can exceed 4 m in some areas. Seeds are emetic, purgative, and used for body pain (Misra and Misra, 2010). Ethnobotanical uses of J. gossypifolia reported for cancer, diarrhea, dysentery, skin diseases (leprosy), arthritis, ulcer, gum infections and wound healing (Dash and Pashay, 2006). The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of possible lipoxygenase inhibitors in different extracts of J. gossypifolia plant extracts. Selection of the J. gossypifolia plant screened in this study was based on its limited or no work on such aspects. The leaves were shade dried and powered. The pow- dered samples were extracted sequentially with hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, butanol and water at 1:10 (w/v) concentrations by using soxhlet apparatus. The extracts were filtered through Whatman No. 1 filter paper and the filtrate collected. The filtrates were concentrated by rotary evaporator, stored at 4°C and used for further studies. Lipoxygenase inhibition of all extracts was carried out according to method described by Baylac and Racine (2010) and the percentage inhibition (%) was calculated. Among all the tested extracts dichloromethane, butanol and ethyl acetate fractions shows the maximum lipoxy- genase inhibition while hexane and crude methanol fraction shows minimum activity. The dichloromethane extract exhibited maximum inhibition of 92.0 ± 0.2 whereas control baicalein exhibited 93.8 ± 1.3 (Table I). A Journal of the Bangladesh Pharmacological Society (BDPS) Bangladesh J Pharmacol 2016; 11: 319-320 Journal homepage: www.banglajol.info Abstracted/indexed in Academic Search Complete, Agroforestry Abstracts, Asia Journals Online, Bangladesh Journals Online, Biological Abstracts, BIOSIS Previews, CAB Abstracts, Current Abstracts, Directory of Open Access Journals, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Google Scholar, HINARI (WHO), International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Open J-gate, Science Citation Index Expanded, SCOPUS and Social Sciences Citation Index ISSN: 1991-0088; DOI: 10.3329/bjp.v11i2.26516 Letter to the Editor Table I Lipoxygenase inhibitory activity of J. gossypifolia J. gossypifolia Conc./well (mm) LOX inhibition (%) LOX IC50 (µg) Crude methanol extract 0.5 70.9 ± 0.3 162.5 ± 0.2 n-Hexane extract 0.5 36.1 ± 0.3 Nil Dichloromethane extract 0.5 92.0 ± 0.2 57.1 ± 0.2 Ethyl acetate extract 0.5 90.2 ± 0.2 58.5 ± 0.3 Butanol extract 0.5 91.9 ± 0.8 59.4 ± 0.3 Baicalein 0.5 mM 93.8 ± 1.3 22.4 ± 1.3 To the best of our knowledge this is the first report on lipoxygenase inhibitory of J. gossypifolia. Hammad Saleem1,2, Irshad Ahmad2 and M. Shoaib Ali Gill1 1Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (IPS), University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan; 2Department of Pharmacy, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Corresponding author: email: hammad.saleem@uvas.edu.pk References Arumugam M, Muthuswamy U, Kuppusamy A, Thirumalai- samy S, Varadharajan S, Puliyath J. Docking studies: In silico lipoxygenase inhibitory activity of some commercially available flavonoids. Bangladesh J Pharmacol. 2012; 6: 133- 38. Baylac S, Racine P. Inhibition of 5-lipoxygenase by essential oils and other natural fragrant extracts. Int J Aromatherapy. 2003; 2: 138-42. Dash SK, Padhy S. Review on ethnomedicines for diarrhoea diseases from Orissa: Prevalence versus culture. J Human Ecol. 2006: 1: 59-64. Mayes PA, Botham KM. Biosynthesis of fatty acids. In: Harper’s Illustrated Biochemistry. Murray RK, Granner DK, Mayes PA, Rodwell VW (eds). 26th ed. New York, Lange Medical Books/McGraw-Hill, 2003, 173-79. Misra M and Misra AN. Jatropha: the biodiesel plant biology, tissue culture and genetic transformation: A review. Int J Pure Appl Sci Technol. 2010; 1: 11-24 Samuelsson B. Leukotrienes: Mediators of immediate hyper- sensitivity reactions and inflammation. Science 1983; 220: 568-75. 320 Bangladesh J Pharmacol 2016; 11: 319-320