Seo, Jung-Chul; Leem, Kang-Hyun; Han, Sang-Won

Bee venom has been clinically used to control the pain of inflammation disease etc. in general. Although the effect of bee venom herbal acupuncture has been reported, its mechanism has not been fully elucidated yet. Free radical metabolism seems to occupy a remarkably common position in the mechanisms of inflammation and ageing related disease. Oxidative damage to DNA, lipids, proteins and other molecules may contribute to the development inflammation disease. NO or DPPH is one of the free radicals and a mediator in inflammation diseases. The objective of this study is to investigate the scavenging effect of bee venom herbal acupuncture against NO and DPPH. The followings are the summary of the results: (1) There is no significant scavenging effect of bee venom herbal acupuncture on NO in BVS and BVP group. (2) There is a significant scavenging effect of bee venom herbal acupuncture on DPPH in BVS-1 and BVP-1 group. These results suggest that bee venom herbal acupuncture can be used for inflammation diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. This study would provide important basic data on the possibility of the clinical treatment of bee venom herbal acupuncture. Further studies are required to investigate the antioxidative effects of it.

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