The present investigation was aimed at determining the effects of hexane, acetone, methanol and aqueous extracts of Acorus calamus leaves (ACHE, ACAE, ACME and ACAQE) on cholinergic and histaminic system using isolated frog rectus abdominis muscle and guinea pig ileum. A dose dependent potentiation of Ach response (anticholinesterase like effect) was found with ACAE and ACME at 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 ...

Asthma is a common disease that is rising in prevalence worldwide with the highest prevalence in industrialized countries. Asthma affects about 300 million people worldwide and it has been estimated that a further 100 million will be affected by 2025. Since the ancient times, plants have been exemplary sources of medicine. Current asthma therapy lack satisfactory success due to adverse effect, ...

Local anesthetics (LAs) inhibit membrane depolarization by reducing sodium and potassium conductance, and subsequent displacement of calcium ions from binding sites seems to occur. Histamine release appears to be a secretory process in which calcium couples the stimulus to the exocytosis of histamine-containing granules. Furthermore, LAs are structurally similar to histamine H(1)-receptor antag...

PulmoFlex, a poly-herbal anti-asthmatic formulation has been reported to possess antihistaminic, mast cell stabilizing, anti-anaphylactic and antiallergic properties in experimental animals and clinical trials. The present study was undertaken to determine the effect of PulmoFlex on isolated perfused rat lung. The lung tissues were perfused at a pressure of 50 mmHg using oxygenated Krebs soluti...

• Atherosclerotic lesions tend to form in areas of the vascular tree subjected to injury —usually mechanical injury. Since injury enhances the phagocytic activity of endothelial cells,' the possibility arises that localization of lipid material may be due in part to phagocytosis of serum lipoproteins by injury-activated aortic endothelial cells. Supporting this possibility is the observation th...

The chemotherapeutic study of a limited series of steroidal sapogenins from several endemic species of the flora of the Canary Islands is presented here. On the whole, they possess a very weak antibacterial activity, a slight antifungal effect and one of them, vespertilin, displays interesting cytostatic activity (ID50 = 5 micrograms/ml). A pharmacodynamic screening carried out on this product ...