Adome R O, Gachihi J W, Onegi B, Tamale J, Apio S O
Department of Pharmacy, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
Afr Health Sci. 2003 Aug;3(2):77-82.
Cardiovascular diseases are increasingly becoming one of the leading diseases causing morbidity and mortality in Uganda. Ethnographic evidence suggests that these diseases are often first managed by indigenous and related herbs before patients are referred for allopathic forms of management. One such herb of interest is Nerium oleander. Therefore the crude ethanolic extracts of the dried leaves of this herb were tested against the following parameters in the isolated guinea pig hearts: force of contraction, heart rate and cardiac flow. The extracts brought about dose-dependent increases in all these parameters from their baseline readings. Compared with graded doses of digoxin the effects closely mirrored the activities in a dose dependent manner. At the mechanism of action level, it would appear the extract works in the same as digoxin since their dose-contraction-response curves are parallel. This finding would tend to provide a strong rationale for the herb's traditional use in cardiovascular illness.
心血管疾病日益成为乌干达导致发病和死亡的主要疾病之一。人种学证据表明，在患者被转介接受对抗疗法治疗之前，这些疾病通常首先由本土草药及相关草药进行治疗。夹竹桃就是一种备受关注的此类草药。因此，对这种草药干燥叶片的粗乙醇提取物在离体豚鼠心脏上进行了以下参数测试：收缩力、心率和心输出量。提取物使所有这些参数相对于基线读数呈剂量依赖性增加。与地高辛的分级剂量相比，其作用以剂量依赖性方式密切反映了活性。在作用机制层面，提取物的作用似乎与地高辛相同，因为它们的剂量-收缩反应曲线是平行的。这一发现倾向于为该草药在心血管疾病方面的传统用途提供有力的理论依据。
