Abstract

Ischemic heart diseases are the most common causes of death in the developed and developing societies. Because vegetable based medications have lower side effects and are well adapted to body’s physiology, a global trend to use these kinds of medications for cardiovascular diseases is increasing. To investigate the effect of Prosopis farcta plant extract (P. F. P. E) on rat’s thoracic aorta. P. farcta plant extract was firstly prepared. Then 2 cm of rat’s thoracic aorta was dissected and was divided into 4 pieces of 5 mm. After contraction of these pieces by phenylephrine (1 µm), different dosages of plant extraction (0.5, 1 and 2 mg/ml) were examined and the effect of P. F. P. E on rat’s aorta with and without endothelium layer was measured. Different dosages of P. farctaextract (1 and 2 mg/ml) at the presence and absence of L- NAME (a nitric oxide synthetase inhibitor) was examined. P. farcta plant extract showed a dose dependent relaxing effect on contracted aorta. The relaxing effect of P. F. P. E on aorta with endothelium was more significant than that on aorta without endothelium in the different dosages (p < 0.05). The relaxing effect of P. F. P. E in the presence of L- NAME was reduced significantly (p < 0.05). The relaxing effect of P. F. P. E was more than that by acetylcholine (p < 0.05). Relaxing effect of acetylcholine was inhibited by atropine but it did not show any effect on the relaxing effect of P. F. P. E (p < 0.001). P. farcta plant extract showed a dose dependent as well as an endothelium dependent relaxing effect on thoracic aorta in rats. Endothelium layer showed an important role in the relaxing effect of P. F. P. E on rat’s aorta. Also nitric oxide had a significant role on the relaxing effect of P. F. P. E.

Key words: Aorta, endothelium layer, prosopis farcta, relaxing effect.