Vasoactive and antioxidant activities of plants used in Mexican traditional medicine for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases

Abstract

This study demonstrated that the aqueous extracts of plants employed in Mexican traditional medicine for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases are able to modify the tone of arterial smooth muscle. Agastache mexicana (Kunth) Lint & Epling (Labiatae), Chenopodium murale L. (Chenopodiaceae), Chirantodendron pentadactylon Larreat (Sterculiaceae), Dracocephalum moldavica L. (Labiatae), Psittacanthus calyculatus G. Don (Loranthaceae), Prunus serotina ssp. capuli (Cav. ex Spreng) McVaugh (Rosaceae), and Sechium edule Sw. (Cucurbitaceae) contain secondary metabolites that promote vascular relaxation and display antioxidant activities. As expected, their antioxidant effects showed a significant correlation with the polyphenolics content. However, a lower correlation was found between the antioxidant activity and the maximum vasodilatory effect, suggesting that the vasodilatation elicited by the plant extracts could be only partly attributed to their antioxidant properties. The extract of P. calyculatus, which displayed a maximum vasorelaxant effect that was higher than that of acetylcholine, induced endothelium-dependent vasodilatation. Futhermore, the vasorelaxant response to the P. calyculatus extract was reduced after adding an inhibitor of soluble guanylate cyclase activity, providing evidence that the NO/cGMP pathway is involved. On the other hand, the extracts of Bocconia frutescens L. (Papaveraceae), Magnolia grandiflora L. (Magnoliaceae), and Solanum rostratum Dunal (Solanaceae) induced concentration-dependent contraction of rat aortic rings, suggesting that these plants have potential health benefits for the treatment of ailments such as venous insufficiency. The pharmacological activities of the extracts studied provide scientific support for their ethnomedical use.

Antifungal activity of essential oils extracted from Agastache mexicana ssp. xolocotziana and Porophyllum linaria against post-harvest pathogens

“…/j.indcrop.2015.058 0926-6690/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Trujano et al, 2012;Ibarra-Alvarado et al, 2010;Argueta et al, 1994). Studies have reported the isolation of chemical compounds from this plant including diosmetin, gardenin A, acacetin, ursolic acid, and tilianin (Estrada-Reyes et al, 2014;Verano et al, 2013;Hernandez-Abreu et al, 2011), and the main constituents of its essential oil were are pulegone (75%), menthone (14%), and limonene (3%) (Svoboda et al, 1995).…”

Contribution of beverages to the intake of polyphenols and antioxidant capacity in obese women from rural Mexico

“…from A. mexicana (27) . Of the fruit juices analysed, peach juice had the highest polyphenol content and antioxidant properties, probably because of the high pulp content (100 % nectar), unlike guava (17 % pulp) and orange (30 % juice).…”

Contributions of natural ingredients from the Mesoamerican biodiversity for the phytocosmetic industry

“…From Europe, well known and widely distributed plants have shown important activity, manly berries from Rosaceae family as well as other seeds and nuts, 4-8 while for Asia, Africa and Latin America several native species have demonstrated important antioxidant activity (Table 2). [9][10][11][12][13] In Guatemala, four studies have demonstrated antioxidant activity in selected medicinal and food plants, particularly Tagetes lucida, 14 Acalypha guatemalensis, Ocimum micranthum, Smilax spinosa, 15 Valeriana prionophylla, 16 Crotalaria longirostrata, Lycianthes synanthera, Solanum americanum and S. wendlandii.…”