Effect and underlying molecular mechanism of essential oil from <i>Curcuma wenyujin</i> Y. H. Chen et C. Ling. roots in the control of acute urarthritis

This study is the first to investigate the essential oil from roots of <i>Curcuma wenyujin</i> Y. H. Chen et C. Ling. (CW), effect on acute urarthritis. The major constituents of essential oil from <i>C. wenyujin</i> were sesquiterpenes (74.92%), monoterpenes (3.08%), esters (2.30%), aldehydes (1.48%), ketones (0.81%) and other types of compounds (2.18%) based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. We established an urarthritis inflammation cell model of monosodium urate (MSU) by RAW264.7 macrophages, and MSU was injected into the ankle joints of rats to establish an urarthritis model. CW suppressed inflammatory factors in MSU-induced RAW264.7 macrophages. The histopathology showed that CW reduced synovial injury. CW not only reduced the level of joint swelling, but also decreased the uric acid, xanthine oxidase, inflammation and oxidative stress in urarthritis rats. Western blotting showed that CW inhibited the TLR4/NF-κB pathway. The results suggest that CW could be a promising candidate to control urarthritis.