Sanguinarine-Chelerythrine Fraction of Coptis chinensis Exerts Anti-inflammatory Activity in Carrageenan Paw Oedema Test in Rats and Reveals Reduced Gastrotoxicity

Table 2

The impact of investigational alkaloid fraction of C. chinensis containing sanguinarine and chelerythrine on gastric mucosa. Indomethacin was used as a reference drug.

Group	Macroscopic evaluation	Microscopic evaluation (H&E staining)
	Gastric index	Inflammation score (0-3)	Gastric mucosa damage score (0-3)	Cumulative microscopic gastric index (0-6)
CON
CAR
IND
SC1
SC5
SC10

CON: negative control group; CAR: positive control group; IND: group receiving indomethacin 10 mg/kg; SC₁, SC₅, and SC₁₀ : groups receiving investigational alkaloid fraction of C. chinensis containing sanguinarine and chelerythrine (1, 5, and 10 mg/kg, respectively); H&E: hematoxylin-eosin. The severity of macroscopic gastric damage was evaluated using the J-scoring method, classifying the erosions as follows: no ; 0-; 1-; . The sum of these measured areas in each animal was described as the cumulative macroscopic gastric index [31]. Microscopic evaluation assessed independently the inflammation process and the damage of gastric mucosa. The severity of the inflammation was assessed using 0-3 scale (0: no inflammation, 1: mild inflammation, 2: moderate, and 3: severe inflammation). The severity of the damage of gastric mucosa was assessed using 0-3 scale (0: no damage, 1: superficial erosion, 2: submucous ulceration, and 3: ulceration in muscularis propria). The cumulative microscopic gastric index was defined as the sum of the inflammation and damage score. Data are presented as the . vs. IND; ^{^^^^}vs. CON.