Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Pharmacology

Background: Inflammation is a complex series of physiological events designed to repair the damaged tissue caused by injury or infection. It is involved in the development of many diseases. Cardinal signs of inflammation as pain and fever are commonly treated with NSAIDs which have many adverse effects. Recently, there is a new trend towards the natural dietary anti-inflammatory agents which have potential therapeutic effects with less adverse events. Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) has been documented nowadays to have diverse beneficial effects on human beings. Oleocanthal is a phenolic compound in olive oil which was proved to have similarity with ibuprofen (IBU). Aim of the work: This work was designed to compare the analgesic, antipyretic and anti- inflammatory effects of EVOO with IBU and their combinations on different animal models in mice. Result: The results revealed that the group treated with the combination of EVOO with the therapeutic dose of IBU 100mg/kg showed the highest percentage of inhibition in acetic acid- induced writhing test and in carrageenan-induced paw edema and the lowest rectal temperature in the brewer's yeast induced pyrexia, followed by that using the standard treatment IBU (100mg/kg) separately. Meanwhile, using EVOO alone or in combination with the low dose of IBU (40mg/kg) showed significant results from the disease model (positive control) but their effects were less than the group treated with the standard drug (IBU 100mg/kg). In the carrageenan induced peritonitis, the results revealed that using the combination of EVOO either with the therapeutic dose of IBU (100mg/kg) or with its low dose (40mg/kg) showed the best results in a dose dependent manner, while using olive oil alone decreased significantly most of the measured parameters and its effects was insignificant from the standard treatment IBU (100mg/kg)

Issued also as CD