Abstract
Chronic inflammation and oxidative stress have significant contributions towards the course of various diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disorders, diabetes, and some cancers. Plant-derived flavonoids have been of interest due to the capacity to affect inflammatory processes and minimize oxidative stress. Calycosin is a type of isoflavone that has been isolated in Astragalus membranaceus, and it has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and analgesic properties. This paper has studied the in vitro anti-inflammatory, xanthine oxidase (XO) and antioxidant properties of calycosin to determine its suitability as a natural therapy.
The protein denaturation assay was carried out to determine the anti-inflammatory activity. The DPPH free radical scavenging assay was used to determine the antioxidant potential. XO inhibitory activity was also determined spectrophotometrically; allopurinol was utilized as a positive control. Calycosin was subjected to the range of 10-300 ug/mL. We estimated the percentage of inhibition in all the assays and established the IC50 by the linear regression. The statistical analysis was conducted by one way ANOVA and post hoc test by Tukey.
These findings suggest that calycosin has notable anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities, along with moderate XO inhibition. This supports its potential as a natural treatment for managing inflammation and oxidative stress-related disorders. Further research is needed to clarify its mechanisms and explore clinical applications.
References
1. Medzhitov R. Inflammation 2010: New adventures of an old flame. Cell. 2010;140(6):771–776.
2. Rahman K. Studies on free radicals, antioxidants, and co-factors. Clin Interv Aging. 2007;2(2):219–236.
3. Wang J, Xiong X, Feng B. Effect of Astragalus membranaceus on the treatment of cardiovascular and renal diseases. J Ethnopharmacol. 2014;154(3):580–593.
4. Li X, Zhou M, Cheng S, Liu Y. Calycosin attenuates inflammatory responses through modulation of NF-κB signaling in LPS-stimulated macrophages. Int Immunopharmacol. 2019;73:281–288.
5. Wang Y, Zhang S, Li H, Xu S. Antioxidant properties of calycosin assessed by DPPH assay and cellular oxidative stress models. Pharm Biol. 2020;58(1):223–229.
6. Zhang L, Chen Q, Liu J, Wang Z. Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of calycosin through suppression of COX-2 and free radical scavenging. Biomed Pharmacother. 2021;138:111437.
7. Gülcin İ. Antioxidants and antioxidant methods: An updated overview. Arch Toxicol. 2020;94:651–715.
8. Saso L, Celano R, Coutsoukas A. Evaluation of antioxidant mechanisms: DPPH and beyond. Molecules. 2019;24(14):2883.
9. Briganti S, Picardo M. Antioxidant activity, lipid peroxidation, and skin diseases: What’s new. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2003;17(6):663–669.
10. Hidalgo M, Sanchez-Moreno C, de Pascual-Teresa S. Flavonoid–protein interactions: Implications in biological activity. Pharmacol Ther. 2010;129(1):1–44.
11. Pacher P, Nivorozhkin A. Therapeutic effects of xanthine oxidase inhibitors: Renaissance of allopurinol. Pharmacol Rev. 2006;58(1):87–114.
12. Okada S, Yu J, Takahashi M. Natural flavonoids as xanthine oxidase inhibitors and potential anti-gout agents. Food Chem. 2021;345:128859.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2026 Pak-Euro Journal of Medical and Life Sciences