ABSTRACT
Eicosanoids belongs to a large family of metabolites formed by oxygenation of 20 carbon (eicosa) fatty acids such as dihomolinolenic acid, ara-chidonic acid, and eicosanopentaenoic acid, the main precursor being the essential fatty acidarachidonic acid (cis 5,8,11,14-eicosatetraenoic acid) in mammalian cells (Smith et al., 2000). There are three major pathways within the arachidonic cascade, which metabolizes arachidonic acid to form the eicosanoids. These pathways include the cyclooxygenase, lipoxygenase, and epoxygenase pathways (Smith and Murphy, 2002). There are 240various subfamilies of eicosanoids. These include prostanoids (products of a cyclooxygenase pathway), the leukotrienes (eoxins) and hydroxyeicosa-tetraenoic acid (HETE) (products of lipoxygenase pathway), and epoxye-icosatrienoic acid (EETs) (product of epoxygenase pathway). Prostanoids subfamily includes the prostaglandins (PG) and thromboxanes (TX) (Noverr et al., 2003). Eicosanoids are quiet specific in stereochemical precision and recognition and have unique biological properties (Funk et al., 2001). They have various roles in nervous system (Tassoni et al., 2008), inflammation (Khanapure et al., 2007), cardiovascular system (Wennmalm et al., 1988), immunity (Harizi et al., 2005), reproduction (Zahradnik et al., 1992), diabetes (Luo and Wang, 2011), endochrine and neuroendocrine system (Bhathena, 2006), and in tissue regeneration, repair, and wound healing (Kalish et al., 2013).
