Abstract
Hexane, ethylacetate (EtOAC), and
n-butanol (
n-BuOH) extracts of medicinal plants traditionally used in the East Asia, such as China, Korea, and Japan were screened for their vasorelaxant activity using isolated rat aorta. Among the 60 solvent-extracts from 20 medicinal plants, hexane and
n-BuOH extracts of
Diospyros kaki and
Polygonum aviculare, hexane, EtOAC, and
n-BuOH extracts of
Magnolia liliflora,
n-BuOH extract of
Sorbus commixta, and EtOAC and
n-BuOH extracts of
Selaginella tamariscina were found to exhibit distinctive vasorelaxant activity. The activity disappeared by removal of functional endothelium or pre-treatment of the aortic tissues with
N
G-nitro-
l-arginine methyl ester (
l-NAME), which is an inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase. These findings suggest that the medicinal plants relax vascular smooth muscle via endothelium-dependent nitric oxide. These results will be useful to further analyze those medicinal plants that contain the vasorelaxant activity in order to identify the active principles.