Evaluation of Anti-inflammatory Activity of Microwave Extracts of Thymus Algeriensis: In Vitro, in Vivo and in Silico Studies

The objective of this work is to study the anti-inflammatory effect in vitro and in vivo of microwave extracts (MW) of Thymus algeriensis. The in vitro study was performed by the human red blood cell protection test, while the in vivo study used the carragee-nan-induced rat paw edema model. The experimental results were confirmed by a molec-ular docking calculation. The results indicated that all microwave extracts have a moder-ate anti-inflammatory effect, depending on their richness in phenolic compounds. Among the extracts studied, the one obtained at 100 °C for 15 min exhibited the most pronounced anti-inflammatory effect, with an inhibition of 78.52%, which is attributed to its high fla-vonoid content. In particular, the flavonoids naringine and catechin showed the best af-finity for the target protein, with values of −10.3 kcal/mol and −9.2 kcal/mol, respectively, as well as low inhibition constants of 0.028 μM and 0.18 μM. These results indicate that these flavonoids generate interactions that enhance the stability of the target lig-and-protein complex, thus contributing to the observed anti-inflammatory effect.