Eucalyptus globulus possesses antihypertensive activity in L-NAME-induced hypertensive rats and relaxes isolated rat thoracic aorta through nitric oxide pathway

Abstract

In the current study we determined the effect of the aqueous extract of leaves of Eucalyptus globulus (AEEG) in anesthetized normal and L-NAME-induced hypertensive rats and on rings of isolated thoracic aorta from Wistar rats at a dose of 160 mg/kg. Our results show that AEEG extract reduced systolic, mean and diastolic blood pressure after repeated (7 days) oral administration of this extract in hypertensive rats. In addition, it was revealed from the present study that AEEG relaxed aortic rings in a dose-dependent (25–200 µg/ml) manner via the activation of nitric oxide production. Pre-treatment of aortic rings with indomethacin, glibenclamide, nifedipine or propranolol did not attenuate the AEEG-induced vasorelaxation. Our data elucidate the health-orientated virtues of using AEEG which may play an important role as an antihypertensive agent to reduce the burden of cardiovascular complications.