Effects ofNelumbinis semen on contractile dysfunction in ischemic and reperfused rat heart

Abstract

Nelumbinis Semen (NS), or lotus seed, is one of the most well-known traditional herbal medicines and is frequently used to treat cardiovascular symptoms in Korea. The anti-ischemic effects of NS on ischemia-induced isolated rat heart were investigated through analyses of changes in blood pressure, aortic flow, coronary flow, and cardiac output. The subjects in this study were divided into two groups: a control, untreated ischemia-induced group, and an ischemia-induced group treated with NS. There were no significant differences in perfusion pressure, aortic flow, coronary flow and cardiac output between the groups before ischemia was induced. The supply of oxygen and buffer was stopped for ten minutes to induce ischemia in isolated rat hearts, and NS was administered during ischemia induction. NS treatment significantly prevented decreases in perfusion pressure, aortic flow, coronary flow and cardiac output under ischemic conditions (p < 0.01). In addition, the mechanism of the anti-ischemic effects of NS was also examined through quantitation of intracellular calcium content in rat neonatal cardiomyocytes. NS significantly prevented intracellular calcium increases induced by isoproterenol (p < 0.01). These results suggest that NS has distinct anti-ischemic effects through calcium antagonism.

The sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)– phytochemical and therapeutic profile

“…Studies on different parts of N. nucifera have shown a variety of pharmacological activities. Extracts of different parts have shown anti‐ischaemia, 13 antioxidant, 14–19 anticancer, 5,11 antiviral, 20,21 anti‐obesity, 22 lipolytic, 23 hypocholesterolaemic, 24 antipyretic, 25 hepatoprotective, 26 hypoglycaemic, antidiarrhoeal, antifungal, antibacterial, anti‐inflammatory and diuretic activities 8,27–34 …”

“…Maximal recovery was seen at a dose of 10 mg/ml, although cardiac output was similar after treatment with 3 or 10 mg/ml doses (63.5 ± 3.2 and 65.8 ± 4.0 ml/min, respectively). Thus, the 3 mg/ml dose was determined to be the optimum dose for anti‐ischaemic effects in the rat 13 …”

Immunomodulatory potential of rhizome and seed extracts of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.

“…hypoglycaemic, antidiarrhoeal, antimicrobial, diuretic, antipyretic, psychopharmacological, antiinflammatory activities (Mukherjee et al, 1995a(Mukherjee et al, ,b,c,d, 1996a(Mukherjee et al, ,b,c, 1997. Seed of the plant also proved to have several therapeutic potential including anti-ischemic (Kim et al, 2006), antioxidant , hepatoprotective (Sohn et al, 2003), antiproliferative (Liu et al, 2004), anti-inflammatory (Lin et al, 2006) activity. It has been reported that this plant has contain betulinic acid, a steroidal pentacyclic triterpenoid, as one of the phytomolecule which has proved to be a potent lead for several pharmacological activities like anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, etc.…”

The sacred lotus (<I>Nelumbo nucifera</I>) - phytochemical and therapeutic profile

“…Thus, the 3 mg/ml dose was determined to be the optimum dose for anti-ischaemic effects in the rat. [13]…”

“…[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Studies on different parts of N. nucifera have shown a variety of pharmacological activities. Extracts of different parts have shown anti-ischaemia, [13] antioxidant, [14][15][16][17][18][19] anticancer, [5,11] antiviral, [20,21] anti-obesity, [22] lipolytic, [23] hypocholesterolaemic, [24] antipyretic, [25] hepatoprotective, [26] hypoglycaemic, antidiarrhoeal, antifungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and diuretic activities. [8,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34] This article reviews the traditional uses, phytochemistry and therapeutic reports on different part of N. nucifera viz.…”