Abstract

Historically Artemisia herba alba (AHA) is widely used in traditional Moroccan medicine. Few studies have been carried out to confirm its traditional use, in particularly immunological studies and to the authors’ knowledge; no study has treated the in vivo immunomodulatory effect of AHA aqueous extracts. This work was established to assess the immunological effects of AHA, including the humoral and cellular immunity effects in vivo. The immunomodulatory effect was assessed by measuring the titer of specific antibodies by the agglutination technique after immunization of Wistar rats with sheep red blood cells, while the pro-inflammatory effect was performed using a carrageenan-induced rat paw edema model. Administered AHA’s aqueous extract (AE) appears to have significantly (p < 0.01) stimulated the production of anti-SRBC antibodies with a dose-dependent effect compared to the control. These results were confirmed by a significant increase in the levels of white blood cells in particular neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes and eosinophils (p<0.05) for the doses 0.5 and 1 g/ml/bw. For the same doses of the extract, a proinflammatory effect was observed by the size of edema and the presence of very dense inflammatory infiltrate made up of lymphocytes, plasma cells and polymorphonuclear neutrophils. The AHA’s AE have shown an important immunomodulatory and pro-inflammatory activities in vivo by enhancing the production of antibodies and the inflammatory reaction.

Key words: Artemisia herba alba, Immunomodulatory effect, In vivo, pro-inflammatory effect, antibodies production, aqueous extract.