Microelements and cardiac glycosides from medicinal plants

Abstract

146 Intensive studies aimed at obtaining medicines from herbal material are performed all over the world. The flora of our planet numbers hundreds of thousands of plant species, of which only 250000 have been studied to date, and only 2000‐3000 species are objects of pharmacological and chemical studies. At the same time, nearly a half of medicines were created on the basis of herbal material, and a quarter of medicines contains herbal extracts or active compounds isolated from plants. A characteristic feature of medicinal plants is their ability to exert a therapeutic effect on the human organism. They synthesize physiologically active compounds (PACs) and concentrate some biologically active elements or their groups. The direction of effect of FACs and elements may coincide; in this case, their effects are either additive or different [1, 2]. Medicinal plants have important advantages, because they provide patients with complexes of related compound; in addition, their effect is milder than the effect of synthetic drugs. Today, cardiovascular diseases are in the focus of attention of modern medicine. The pathology of circulation organs is one of the main causes of disability and mortality. Only nine families and 20 genera include plants producing cardiosteroids [2]. The specific effect of compounds of this group on the myocardium is determined by lactone heterocycles (five-membered in cardenolides and six-membered in bufadienolides), located at position C17 of aglycone. Degradation of these heterocycles leads to a complete loss of the “heart effect.” A comparison of synthetic drugs and cardiac glycosides shows that the latter are unrivalled in their specific ability to increase the contraction force of the myocardium. In addition to PACs, various elements (including those that are accumulated in plant synthesizing cardiac glycosides) also affect the myocardium. The goal of this study was to determine which elements are concentrated by the medicinal plants that synthesize cardiac glycosides and to compare the pharmacological effect of these elements and cardiac glycosides. In this work, we studied the elemental composition of pheasant’s eye ( Adonis vernalis L.), monkshood ( Aconitum leucostomum Worosch.), narrow-leaved cotton bush ( Gomphocarpus fruticosus L.), diffuse wallflower ( Erysimum diffusum Ehrh.), and cherry laurel ( Laucerasus officinalis M. Roem.) using atomic absorption spectroscopy and spectrophotometric detection.