Traditional fever tree extract lowers blood pressure in animal test
Medicinal Plants
The tree healers in parts of West Africa plant near homes for its medicinal leaves just got lab evidence that its traditional use for high blood pressure actually holds up.
Newbouldia laevis, a tree common in West African gardens and used in folk medicine, has leaves that people brew or prepare to treat high blood pressure. Scientists extracted compounds from the dried leaves and gave increasing doses to an anesthetized cat, watching its blood pressure drop more as the dose went up. They also tested it on mice at very high doses and found no deaths, suggesting it's reasonably safe, though more work is needed to figure out exactly which compounds are doing the work.
Key Findings
Extract produced a dose-dependent depressor (blood-pressure-lowering) response, with peak effect increasing from -2.8mm at 10µg to -4.1mm at 100µg in one experimental state
Phytochemical screening detected strong presence of alkaloids, tannins, and flavonoids, plus carbohydrates, resins, proteins, and oils
Acute toxicity testing in mice showed no mortality at doses up to 5000 mg/kg, suggesting a wide safety margin
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers tested a West African medicinal plant's leaf extract on cats and found it lowered blood pressure in a dose-dependent way, backing up its long use in traditional medicine for hypertension.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
THE ANTIHYPERTENSIVE PROPERTIES OF METHANOLIC EXTRACT OF NEWBOULDIA LAEVIS LEAVES ON ANAESTHETIZED CAT
Background: Hypertension remains a major cardiovascular health problem, and medicinal plants continue to be investigated as potential sources of antihypertensive agents. Newbouldia laevis is tradit...
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Newbouldia is a genus of plants in the family Bignoniaceae native to Africa. It is a monotypic genus consisting of the species Newbouldia laevis.