Planta Med 2014; 80 - P2B3
DOI: 10.1055/s-0034-1394880

Antidiabetic and antihypertensive effect of Brickellia cavanillesii

GM Avila Villarreal 1, S Estrada Soto 1, AB Aguilar Guadarrama 2, R Villalobos Molina 3
  • 1Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Mexico
  • 2Centro de Investigaciones Químicas, Universidad Autónoma de Morelos, Mexico
  • 3Unidad de Investigación en Biomedicina, Facultad de Estudios Superiores-Iztacala, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Mexico

Brickellia cavanillesii A. Gray (Asteraceae) is a medicinal plant commonly used in traditional medicine as antispasmodic, antihypertensive and antidiabetic agent. In Mexico, it is known as “la prodigiosa”, and has been reported as one of the main plants used for the treatment of diabetes mellitus [1 – 2]. Current work was conducted to evaluate the vasorelaxant, antihypertensive and antidiabetic effect of extracts from B. cavanillesii. Extracts were prepared by maceration, using in the following order: n-hexane, dichloromethane and methanol, in order to separate compounds according to their polarity. Pharmacological evaluation of the extracts established that methanolic extract of B. cavanillesii (MEBc) showed the highest potential as antidiabetic and antihypertensive, subjecting this to phytochemical study and in vitro e in vivo testing. The MEBc induces a significant antidiabetic effect in an acute test in a non-insulin dependent model [3]; also in in vivo glucose tolerance test reduced the hyperglycemic peak compared with the control group. On the other hand, the MEBc were found to induce significant relaxant effect in a concentration-dependent manner on aortic rat rings pre-contracted with noradrenaline 0.1µM, showing Emax: 79.48%± 3.79%, EC50 48.01 µg/mL with endothelium; and Emax: 54.71 ± 298.07, EC50 8.14 µg/mL without endothelium, respectively. Pre-incubation with L-NAME (unspecific NOS inhibitor), indomethacin (unspecific COX inhibitor), ODQ (soluble guanylyl cyclase inhibitor) and atropine (cholinergic receptor antagonist) indicates that vasorelaxant mode of action is related with NO/cGMP system [4]. Oral administration of 100 mg/kg of EMBc exhibited significantly lowered in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and the heart rate was not modified in a non-invasive model. The phytochemical study allowed the isolation of phenolic and triterpenic compounds identified by spectroscopic and spectrometric methods.

Keywords: Brickellia cavanillesii, hypertension, flavonoids, vasorelaxant, diabetes mellitus

References:

[1] Monroy-Ortiz C, Castillo-España P. Plantas Medicinales utilizadas en el estado de Morelos. Cuernavaca, Morelos: Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, 2007.

[2] Romero-Cerecero O et al. Use of medicinal plants among patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 in Morelos. BLACPMA 2009; 5: 380 – 388.

[3] Masiello P. Animal models of type-2 diabetes with reduced pancreatic-cell mass. Int J Biochem Cell Biol 2006;38: 873 – 893.

[4] Torres-Piedra et al. A comparative study of flavonoid analogues on streptozotocin-nicotinamide induced diabetic rats: Quercetin as potential antidiabetic agent acting via 11-ß-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 inhibition. Eur J Med Chem 2010; 7: 2606 – 2612.