Anti-inflammatory activity of Korean thistle Cirsium maackii and its major flavonoid, luteolin 5-O-glucoside

► Luteolin 5-O-glucoside from C. mackii whole plants possess anti-inflammatory activity. ► The presence of a 5-O-glucosyl group in luteolin is required to reduce the cytotoxicity. ► Luteolin 5-O-glucoside inhibited LPS-induced NO production. ► It also inhibited t-BHP-induced ROS generation. ► It suppressed the expression of iNOS and COX-2 in macrophages. The anti-inflammatory activity of whole Cirsium maackii (family Compositae) plants and of its major flavonoid, luteolin 5-O-glucoside, was evaluated for their ability to inhibit lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced nitric oxide (NO) production, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) protein expression, and tert-butylhydroperoxide (t-BHP)-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in RAW 264.7 murine macrophage cells. The methanolic extract of C. maackii showed strong anti-inflammatory activity, and was thus fractionated with several solvents. The ethyl acetate-soluble fraction, exhibiting the highest anti-inflammatory activity potential, was further to yield a major flavonoid, luteolin 5-O-glucoside. We found that luteolin 5-O-glucoside, at a non-toxic concentration, inhibited LPS-induced NO production and t-BHP-induced ROS generation in a dose-dependent manner in RAW 264.7 cells. It also suppressed the expression of iNOS and COX-2 in LPS-stimulated macrophages. Furthermore, the efficacies of the methanolic extract of C. maackii in inhibiting both NO and ROS were attributed to its flavonoid content by HPLC analysis. These results indicated that C. maackii whole plants and its flavonoids inhibit the expression of iNOS and COX-2 in through the inhibition of ROS generation, and therefore can be considered as a useful therapeutic and preventive approach for the treatment of various inflammatory and oxidative stress-related diseases.