Biol. Pharm. Bull. 28(12) 2197—2200 (2005)

tological disease, such as atopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis and urticaria, and the accompanying symptom of some systemic disorders, like chronic renals, cholestasis and diabetes mellitus. Atopic dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that affects 10—20% of all children, and its prevalence has gradually increased over the past few decades. It is now well established that endogenous mediators, such as histamine, serotonin, peptides, proteases, prostaglandins and cytokines, are the main pruritogens responsible for itching. Based on this research, many antipruritic drugs, histamine H1 receptor antagonists, antiallergic drugs and steroidal drugs are developed and widely used in the clinical treatment of itching caused by atopic dermatitis. Unfortunately, there is still no specific remedy available for this disease. In order to improve the quality of life for the dermatitis patients, many efforts have been focused on the screening of herbs or finding new constituents from herbs that exhibit on antipruritic effect. Bulgaria inquinans, a wood-inhabiting ascomycete growing on freshly felled oak, is widely distributed in the area of Changbai Mountain (Northeastern China). In the Changbai Mountain area, Bulgaria inquinans has been used as a folk medicine for the treatment of dermatitis. Phytochemical investigation of the fruit bodies of Bulgaria inquinans demonstrated the presence of ergosterol, galactitiol, ethanedioic acid, azaphilone derivatives, palmitic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid. However very little information is available about the pharmacological findings pertaining to this ascomycete. In the present study, the effect of the ethanol extract of Bulgaria inquinans on both the scratching behavior and vascular permeability induced by compound 48/80 in ICR mice was studied.