Lecture 20: Plants and Medicine: Heart and Circulation Flashcards
______ and ______ are the 2nd and 3rd, respectively causes of death in Canada after cancer.
Heart disease, stroke
______ is the main cause of hospitalization for people over 65, but increasingly affecting people over 35. Ca. 50,000 Canadians diagnosed every year.
Congestive heart failure
_____ occurs when the heart is unable to provide sufficient pump action/force to distribute blood flow to meet the needs of the body.
CHF (Congestive heart failure)
What are the 5 most common symptoms of congestive heart failure
Fluid accumulating in the body
Gaining weight.
Feeling bloated and puffy.
Lungs get “wet” with laboured breathing .
Feeling lethargic, exhausted and have trouble carrying out simple tasks.
CHF—> Edema =
Dropsy
______ plants are very numerous and have ______ that increase the force of heart muscle contraction without increasing O2 consumption
Cardiotonic, Cardiac glycosides
True or False: Cardiac glycosides were so toxic that people used them as poisons, homicidal or suicidal aids.
True
Monarch butterflies sequester cardiac glycosides from ______ (Asclepias spp.).
milkweeds
True or False: The glycosides are harmless to the butterflies and the birds who eat them
False, harmless to the butterflies but toxic to the birds who would want to eat them.
What is the purpose plants producing cardiac glycosides?
Plants produce them to defend themselves against animals.
Who was the individual first to discover the cure for dropsy or CHF?
William Withering (1741-1799
______ is used for cardiac incefenciencies and _____ is used more for supra-ventricular arrhythmias, particularly atrial fibrillation.
Digitalin, digitoxin
______ or high blood pressure, is a chronic medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is elevated. ______ is the opposite.
Hypertension (HTN), Hypotension
The ______ plant is used to treat hypertension.
Rauvolfia sp. (snakeroot species)
There are 50 alkaloids in Snakeroot but the chemical _____ acts on the sympathetic nervous system depleting norepinephrine (and dopamine). This results in a relaxation of vessels and a diminished output from the heart.
Resperine
True or False:
Garlic is efficient in mild cases of hypertension.
True
What are other benefits of garlic?
Reduces cholesterol, inhibits platelet aggregation, and increases antioxidant status
______ was traditionally used in Chinese herbal medicine (Ma-huang) to treat bronchial asthma, colds, and influenza but more modernly treated for hypotension (decongestant) now.
Ephedra spp
The alkaloid Ephedrine is similar in structure with _____ and ______.
amphetamine and methamphetamine (crystal meth)
Ephedrine increases the activity of ________.
noradrenaline.
Thus Ephedra is both a _____ (similar to adrenaline) and a ______.
Stimulant, thermogenic
It increases heart rate, constricts blood vessels therefore, increasing blood pressure.
_______ another alkaloid contained by Ephedra, is used in over-the-counter decongestants.
Pseudoephedrine
_____ is used to treat cardiac arrhythmia
Crataegus spp. Hawthorn
True or False: Hawthorn is also effective in treating chronic heart failure & hypertension
True
What are the 2 active ingredients in Hawthorn?
flavonoids and oligomeric procyanidins.
What are the physiological effects of hawthorn?
Dilate blood vessels
Strengthen heart muscle contractions
Stabilize heart beat
A heartbeat that is too fast is called ______ and a heartbeat that is too slow is called ______.
tachycardia, bradycardia
______ is any of a large and heterogeneous group of conditions in which there is abnormal electrical activity in the heart
Cardiac arrhythmia
_____ is The ONLY plant safe to use to treat a wide spectrum of heart problems.
Hawthorn
_____ is used to treat peripheral and cerebral circulatory stimulation
Ginkgo
_____ was Worshipped like a god in Japan
Ginkgo
What are the 4 current uses of ginkgo?
improvement in blood flow (including in small capillaries in the brain)
inhibitors of platelet aggregation (blood clotting)
Antioxidant
Cognitive impairment/mild dementia
What are the 2 active compounds in Gingko?
Ginkgolides and bilobalide
remember spp. Ginkgo biloba
____ reduces cholesterol, inhibits platelet aggregation, and increases antioxidant status
Garlic (Allium sativum)and to some extent onion (A. cepa)
What are the 4 plants named that reduce cholesterol, platelet aggregation and blood clots
Garlic (Allium sativum)and to some extent onion (A. cepa)
Avena sativa -oat
Linum ussitatisimum - flax
Glycine max- soybeans
______ possesses different pharmacological activities besides reducing cholesterol levels, like antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, wound healing, immunomodulatory, and antidiabetic.
Oat
______ are steroid compounds found in plants that mimic cholesterol. A diet rich in phytosterols reduces (bad) cholesterol
Phytosterols
Question: In addition to reducing bad cholesterol, One of the plants below reduces blood pressure
A: allium sativum (garlic)
Question: What is resperprine?
Alkaloid in snakeroot, act on the sympathetic nervous system depleting norepinephrine
What are 4 examples of phytosterols? (last slide)
Camelia sinensis (green tea),
Theobroma coaco (chocolate),
Wine,
Cinnamon
What are 4 examples of phytosterols? (last slide)
Camelia sinensis (green tea),
Theobroma cacao (chocolate),
Wine,
Cinnamon
