Anti-allergic effects of extracts from commercial products of cooked burdock

Abstract

The anti-allergic effects of commercial products from cooked burdock (burdock salad, fried up burdock and burdock boiled with vinegar) were investigated by analyzing their inhibitory effects on the enzymatic activity (cyclooxygenase-2, lipoxygenase, phospholipase A2 and hyaluronidase) and the suppression of degranulation from rat basophilic leukemia (RBL)-2H3 cells. The methanol extract of burdock boiled with vinegar did not inhibit the cyclooxygenase-2 activity in the experiments. Those of the burdock salad and fried up burdock exhibited inhibitory activities in all the experiments. The burdock salad extract strongly inhibited lipoxygenase, phospholipase A 2 and hyaluronidase. Thus, commercial cooked burdock, in addition to raw burdock, has bioactivities corresponding to an anti-allergic effect.