ABSTRACT
Infl ammation is a physiologic response of the organism’s immune system to tissue damage caused by harmful stimuli like mechanical trauma, tissue necrosis, and infection. It is characterized clinically by cardinal symptoms described more than 2000 years ago: calor (heat), rubor (redness), dolor (pain), and loss of function. Although it is generally seen as a protective process, infl ammation is at the center of many diseases when it fails to resolve and persists. Acute infl ammation is a non-specifi c initial response that attempts to neutralize the damaging agents and restore normal function to injured tissues. For that a vast array of infl ammatory mediators are produced and released at the site of injury from different cell types during the initiation phase of infl ammation. On the other hand, infl ammation resolution is commonly perceived as a passive one stemming from the catabolism of pro-infl ammatory mediators. However, there is now
1Nature Conservation Center for Sustainable Futures-IBSAR, American University of Beirut, Lebanon. aE-mail: rtalhouk@aub.edu.lb bE-mail: rgsalloum@hotmail.com cE-mail: fh01@aub.edu.lb 2Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, American University of Beirut. *Corresponding author
mounting evidence that infl ammatory resolution is also an active process involving a set of pro-resolving mediators, yet when this process fails to be completed, a state of chronic infl ammation is reached. Many patients suffering from chronic infl ammatory diseases, and in the face of failing conventional medicines and concerns regarding their side effects, opt for herbal therapy.
