Abstract:
Globally, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are becoming the major cause of death. C. rubens is one of endogenous plant which treats a wide range of disease conditions including heart diseases. However, there is limited information on safety and efficacy of the plant, especially hypolipidemic and cardioprotective activities. This study investigated the effects of leaf methanol extract and fractions of C. rubens on lipid profile and liver marker enzymes (AST, ALT) of Isoprenaline induced myocardial infracted rats. Forty-five male Wistar rats were randomly divided into nine groups and administered different doses of the extract for 14 days while normal control and myocardial infarcted control received phosphate buffer saline. The lipid profile in the blood plasma and liver of experimental animals were determined using Randox Kits. C. rubens leaf methanol extract caused significant (p< 0.05) reduction in plasma and liver total cholesterol, triglycerides, VLDL-C, and LDL-Cholesterol, of the myocardial infarcted rats while plasma HDL-C was significantly elevated. Crude extract and solvent fractions of C. rubenssignificantly prevented the deleterious effect of isoproterenol on lipid profiles including triglycerides (p<0.05) and total cholesterol. This study showed that the methanol extract of C. rubens exerted a hypolipidemic effect which improves the lipid profile in myocardial infarcted rats.
