Objective: To observe the effects of Aralia echinocaulis Hand-Mazz in Guizhou on adjuvant arthritis in rats and discuss the mechanism. Method: Rats were divided into normal control group

model group

positive drug group(tripterygium wilfordii 12 mg ·kg-1)

A. echinocaulis high dosage group

middle dosage group

low dosage group(the dosage 3.5

1.75

0.88 g ·kg-1)randomly

all rats were made into ovalbumin adjuvant-induced arthritis model in Freund’s adjuvant(FCA) except the normal group.The according treatments were given by oral gavage for each group starting from the modeling day

then continuously for 35 days. The effect on rats’ primary and secondary adjuvant-induced arthritis were observed. Nitric oxide(NO) content in serum was detected by nitrate reductase method and the interleukin-1 β (IL-1β)

tumor necrosis factor- α (TNF-α) were measured with radioimmunoassay (RIA). Result: A. echinocaulis had obvious inhibition on rats’ ankle adjuvant-induced arthritis

the inhibitory effect was decreased with the alleviation of the amount of dosage(middle dosage group

low dosage group).The A. echinocaulis high dosage group could decrease the IL-1 level in rat serum significantly. The high and middle dosage group could decrease the TNF-α level significantly. The high

middle and low dosage group could decrease the NO level significantly. From the pathological observation

the rat ankle joint inflammatory cells in A. echinocaulis high dosage group decreased obviously

the synovial membrane tissue cells and the fibroblast cells did not increase obviously

the articular cartilages got few failure. Conclusion: The high dosage A. echinocaulis is effective in the treatment of AA rats by inhibiting the inflammatory cytokines.