THE ROLE OF TRITERPENOIDS IN THE TOPICAL ANTIINFLAMMATORY ACTIVITY OFCALENDULA-OFFICINALIS FLOWERS

By means of a bioassay-oriented fractionation of the CO;! extract of C alendula flowers, the triterpenoids are shown as the most important an ti-inflammatory principles of the drug. Among them, the faradiol monoe ster appears to be the most relevant principle for the activity of the drug, due to its quantitative prevalence. The unesterified faradiol, not present in the extract, is the most active of the tested compounds and equals indomethacin in activity, whereas the monools psi-taraxast erol, lupeol, taraxasterol, and beta-amyrin are less active than the f ree diol. The anti-inflammatory activity of different CO2 extracts is proportional to their content of faradiol monoester, which can be take n as a suitable parameter for the quality control of Calendula prepara tions.