Nigella damascena L belongs to Ranunculaceae family and is mentioned in Eastern traditional medicine for the treatment of high temperatures, regulation of menstruation or catarrhal affections. The anti-inflammatory activity of compounds present in the essential oil obtained from seeds of this plant can be found in literature, however no studies on immunomodulatory activity are provided. Hence, in this work anti-inflammatory activity of N. damascena seed essential oil as well as damascenine and main compound β-elemene was evaluated on ex-vivo lipopolysaccharide (LPS)–stimulated human neutrophils. For isolation of damascenine fast and efficient protocol was elaborated using high performance countercurrent chromatography technique for the first time. Also detailed spectroscopic characteristic of damascenine was provided for the first time. Damascenine was separated from the essential oil in a mixture of petroleum ether/acetonitrile/acetone (2:1.5:0.5 v/v/v) in reversed phase mode in 12 min with 99.47% purity. Essential oil, damascenine and β-elemene presented immunomodulatory activity evaluated in LPS–stimulated neutrophils ex vivo. All studied samples significantly inhibited release of interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) and interleukin 8 (IL-8). What is more, damascenine and β-elemene decreased matrix metallopeptidase 9 (MMP-9) production similar to dexamethasone. The release of tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) was also inhibited in all range of concentrations, however the activity was weaker then activity of dexametasone. The previously reported anti-inflammatory activity of damascenine and β-elemene investigated in murine models was confirmed in our study on human neuthrophils suggesting their possible strong inhibitory effect on inflammatory response progression.

Nigella damascena L属于毛an科，在东方传统医学中被提及用于治疗高温，调节月经或卡他性感情。从该植物的种子获得的精油中存在的化合物的抗炎活性可以在文献中找到，但是未提供有关免疫调节活性的研究。因此，在这种工作抗炎活性N.大马士革种子精油以及damascenine和主要化合物β-榄物上进行评估离体脂多糖（LPS）刺激人类嗜中性粒细胞。为了分离大马士革碱，首次使用高性能逆流色谱技术阐述了快速有效的方法。还首次提供了金刚烷胺的详细光谱特征。在12分钟内以99.47％的纯度在反相模式下从石油醚/乙腈/丙酮（2：1.5：0.5 v / v / v）的混合物中将大马士革碱与精油分离。在LPS刺激的中性粒细胞离体中评估了香精油，大马士革碱和β-榄香烯的免疫调节活性。所有研究的样品均显着抑制白介素1β（IL-1β）和白介素8（IL-8）的释放。而且，与地塞米松相似，大马士革碱和β-榄香烯减少了基质金属肽酶9（MMP-9）的产生。在所有浓度范围内，肿瘤坏死因子（TNF-α）的释放也均受到抑制，但是其活性要弱于地塞米松的活性。在我们对人嗜中性粒细胞的研究中证实了先前在鼠类模型中研究的大马仙碱和β-榄香烯的抗炎活性，表明它们可能对炎性反应进程具有强抑制作用。