Abstract
A uterotonic principle of the Chinese drug I–mu Ts'ao, Leonurus artemisia, was obtained
by fractionating the crude acidic methanol extract of the plant on aluminium oxide
and Sephadex G–25 columns successively. The structure of this uterotonic compound
was determined by ir, NMR and ms to be leonurine and confirmed by comparison to a
synthetic product. The uterotonic properties of leonurine were examined on isolated
rat uterus.
