Screening of Korean marine plants for their inhibitory effect on histamine release from RPMC in vitro

Allergy, meaning 'heightened reactivity' of a host on being exposed to an antigen, is an immediate reaction which included anaphylaxis following contact with an antigen. An anaphylatic reaction is caused by the release of pharmacological mediators, like histamine, from mast cells. The potential anti-allergic activities of 27 seaweed and 19 salt marsh extracts collected from the coast of Korea were tested against the inhibition of histamine release in rat peritoneal mast cells (RPMCs). Among them, three salt marsh plants (Persicaria lapathifolia, Ixeris tamagawaensis, and Salsola komarovil) significantly showed more than 75% of inhibition of the histamine release at a concentration of 100 mu g/mL, and also three salt marsh (Messerschmidla sibinca, Rosa rugosa, and Portulaca oleraceae) and three seaweed (Colpomenia bullosa, Derbesia marina, and Sargassum thunbergii) extracts exhibited moderately inhibition effects when compared to the control.