Ethnopharmacological relevance: Tagetes lucida Cav. commonly known as "yauhtli" or "pericón" is used in Mexican traditional medicine for the treatment of anxiety, depressant diseases, pain, hypertension, among others.
Aim: To evaluate the antihypertensive and vasorelaxant modes of action of a crude ethanolic extract from T. lucida aerial parts and to isolate the bioactive compounds.
Materials and methods: Ethanolic extract was tested in an in vivo assay in SHR rats by intragastric administration at 10 and 100 mg/kg dosages, to measure and to compare hemodynamic parameters like diastolic and systolic blood pressure and heart rate. Also, extract (3.03-1000 μg/ml), fractions (3.03-1000 μg/ml) and pure isolated compounds (1.75-550 μM) were evaluated on isolated aortic rings contracted with noradrenaline (0.1 μM) to determine their vasorelaxant effect and extract-mode of action.
Results: Ethanolic extract of T. lucida lowered systolic and diastolic blood pressure on SHR rats without heart rate modification (P > 0.05). Moreover, the extract showed concentration-dependent relaxant effect in a partially endothelium-dependent manner (P < 0.05), through NO/cGMP system activation and calcium channel blockade. 6,7,8-trimethoxycoumarin (1), 6,7-dimethoxycoumarin (2), and 7-methoxycoumarin (3) from T. lucida are the main bioactive compounds of the extract and showed significant vasorelaxant activity.
Conclusions: Results provide evidence and endorsed the antihypertensive properties attributed to T. lucida in traditional medicine, which is produced by vasorelaxant effect mainly through multitarget NO/cGMP system activation and calcium channel blockade. Coumarin derivatives 1, 2 and 3 are the responsible of the vasorelaxant activity.
Keywords: Antihypertensive; Calcium channel blockade; Coumarins; NO/cGMP system; Tagetes lucida; Vasorelaxant.
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