Huma Shareef, Ghazala H Rizwani and Ahsana Dar
Accepted Abstracts: Nat Prod Chem Res
In traditional medicine Cardiospermum halicacabum L. (Sapindeaceae) is used against various ailments. The search for a new remedy, easily available, non-expensive, able to lower hypertension and standardize blood pressure, made the author and her team to develop an herbal medicine. Crude ethanol extract of C. halicacabum and its various fractions ethyl acetate and butanol showed a dose-dependent hypotensive effect in anaesthetized rats. The trachea was exposed and freed from connective tissue and incubated by cannula to facilitate spontaneous respiration. The right carotid artery and left jugular vein were cannulated with polyethylene tubing PE-50 for monitoring blood pressure changes via pressure transducer (Gould P23 ID) connected to a Grass model 79D polygraph and for i.v. injection, respectively. Drugs or the plant extracts were administered at a constant volume of 0.5 ml/kg, followed by injection of 0.2 ml of saline that flushed the cannula. Systolic, diastolic and mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) was measured in mm Hg and heart rate in beats/min Ethanol extract of C. halicacabum showed a significant activity at 50 mg/kg dose. Ethyl acetate fraction (10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 mg/kg) induced dose dependent fall in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate of rats. At 10-30 mg/kg the hypotensive effect non-significantly reduced by 10- 15%. However, the extract at 40 mg/kg induced significant hypotensive effect calculated as 30.95 ? 3.2% MABP and this effect persists till 50 mg/kg. The higher polar fraction (butanol) of the whole plant failed to produce any significant response against MABP at all the tested doses (10-50 mg/kg). C. halicacabum lowers blood pressure, exerts a dose-dependent hypotensive effect, can be used as hypotensor.
Huma Shareef has completed her PhD in Pharmacognosy in 2013 from University of Karachi. She is the Associate professor and Head of The department of Pharmaognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ziauddin University. She has published more than 25 papers in reputed journals.
