The objective of this study was to investigate whether the clinically observed efficacy of rose hip in the treatment of osteoarthritis is due to inhibition of cyclooxygenase-1 and -2. Water, methanol, dichloromethane and hexane extracts of rose hip were tested for in vitro COX-1 and 2 activity. The organic solvent extracts showed good inhibition of both COX-1 and 2. The methanol extract was most active in both assays with IC(50) values of 12 microg/mL for COX-1 and 19 microg/mL for COX-2. The clinically observed effect might be due to inhibition of cyclooxygenase.
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