PARTE UTILIZADA= Used part: Sumidades aereas. 

ACCIÓN FARMACOLÓGICA= Pharmacological action: Sedante, espasmolítico, antiarrítmico y ligeramente hipotensor. 

POSOLOGÍA= Posology: Uso interno : 4,5 g/día de droga o preparaciones equivalentes. 

COMPOSICIÓN QUÍMICA= Chemical composition: Trazas de aceite esencial (0,05 %), taninos gálicos y catéquicos (2%), saponósidos, ácidos fenólicos, flavonoides :  leonurina. Heterósidos amargos deestructura similar a los bufadienólidos . Alcaloides : estaquidrina, leonurinina. 

ZONA GEOGRÁFICA= Geografical zone: En toda  Europa. 

ÚLTIMOS AVANCES EN LA QUÍMICA Y ACTIVIDADES BACTERIOLÓGICAS EN LAS PLANTAS MEDICINALES= Medicinal plants, last advances on chemistry and bacteria activities on the medicinal herbs

1) Leonurus cardiaca L. (Lamiaceae) is used traditionally for its sedative, hypotensive and cardiotonic effects.  Due to the lack of clin. data regarding its effect in patients, a study was carried out to assess the clin. efficacy of Leonurus oil ext. (LOE) in patients with arterial hypertension stages 1 and 2, accompanied by anxiety and sleep disorders.  Fifty patients were treated for 28 days with 1200 mg LOE per day.  Pos. effects of LOE on psycho-emotional status and arterial blood pressure in patients with stage 1 hypertension were obsd. 1 wk earlier than in patients with stage 2 hypertension.  According to the Clin. Global Impression (CGI) scale, a significant improvement in the symptoms of anxiety and depression was obsd. in 32% of patients, a moderate improvement in 48% and a weak effect in 8%; 12% of patients did not respond to therapy.  Side effects were minimal in all groups.  Leonurus oil ext. may therefore be a potentially effective therapeutic agent for patients with arterial hypertension and concurrent psycho-neurol. disorders.  Copyright Ó 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

2) Lavandulifolioside was detected for the first time in Leonurus cardiaca var. vulgaris [Moench] Briquet (Lamiaceae).  The isolation was performed from the butanolic ext. of the aerial parts and the identification by NMR and MS.  The pharmacol. properties of lavandulifolioside consist of significant neg. chronotropism, prolongation of the P-Q, Q-T intervals and QRS complex, and decrease of blood pressure.  Contrary to the butanolic ext. lavandulifolioside did not reduce the spontaneous locomotor activity.  In conclusion, the pharmacol. pattern of lavandulifolioside did not explain the pharmacol. effects of L. cardiaca L. alone.

3) Although several antiarrhythmic drugs of chemical origin are in clinical use since decades, their application is often limited by their adverse effects and especially by their inherited proarrhythmic risk, which can lead to a significantly increased mortality in patients receiving these compounds.  On the other hand, aqueous extracts from the aerial parts of the European Lamiaceae Leonurus cardiaca (Ph.Eur.) have been used for centuries as a remedy against tachyarrhythmia and other cardiac disorders.  Nevertheless, a scientific basis for the claim of direct cardiac electrophysiological, antiarrhythmic, or functional effects of Leonurus cardiacae herba (LCH) preparations has not been established until now.  In order to enrich the active constituents from the primary extract which was tested as the most cardioactive, namely the aqueous Soxhlet extract, and to eliminate undesired substances such as the dichloromethanic fraction or potassium, a bioassay guided fractionation procedure was applied, resulting in the development of a Leonurus cardiaca refined extract (LCRE) which was characterised together with Leonurus crude extracts by a newly developed gradient elution HPLC fingerprint analysis for separation and quantification of six major phenolics as well as by qNMR for determining the stachydrine content.  This refined extract was applied intracoronarily in isolated rabbit hearts perfused according to the Langendorff technique.  Mapping experiments with 256 electrodes on the heart surface showed a reduction of left ventricular pressure and an increase of relative coronary flow at concentrations of 1.0 and 2.0 mg/mL LCRE.  Furthermore, the PQ-interval was prolonged and both the basic cycle length and the activation recovery interval increased.
 In addition, voltage-clamp measurements were performed on the following cell models in order to characterise the electrophysiological profile of LCRE: neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes to investigate the effect on I(Na) and I(Ca.L), sinoatrial node cells and ventricular myocytes isolated from adult guinea pigs to test effects on I(f) and action potential (AP) duration, as well as HERG-transfected HEK 293 cells to analyse the influence on the I (K.r).  In these voltage clamp experiments LCRE exerted a calcium-antagonistic activity by I(Ca.L) blockade, reduced the repolarising current I(K.r), and prolonged the AP-duration, while I(Na) was not affected.  Although LCRE displayed only weak effects on the I(f) amplitude and voltage dependence, it significantly prolonged the activation time constant of I(f).  Thus, LCRE acts on multiple electrophysiological targets, specifically I(Ca.L), I(K.r), and I(f), observed both at whole organ and single cell level.  Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart.New York.

Patente extraída del Chemical Abstracts

  Self-tanning cosmetic compositions comprising kinase inhibitor.      Lentini, Peter J.; Giacomoni, Paolo U.  (Elc Management LLC, USA).    PCT Int. Appl.  (2009),     40pp.  CODEN: PIXXD2  WO  2009048746  A2  20090416  Designated States W: AE, AG, AL, AM, AO, AT, AU, AZ, BA, BB, BG, BH, BR, BW, BY, BZ, CA, CH, CN, CO, CR, CU, CZ, DE, DK, DM, DO, DZ, EC, EE, EG, ES, FI, GB, GD, GE, GH, GM, GT, HN, HR, HU, ID, IL, IN, IS, JP, KE, KG, KM, KN, KP, KR, KZ, LA, LC, LK, LR, LS, LT, LU, LY, MA, MD, ME, MG, MK, MN, MW, MX, MY, MZ, NA, NG, NI, NO, NZ, OM, PG, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, RU, SC, SD, SE, SG, SK, SL, SM, ST, SV, SY, TJ, TM, TN, TR.  Designated States RW: AT, BE, CH, CY, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IE, IS, IT, LU, MC, MT, NL, NO, PT, SE, TR, BF, BJ, CF, CG, CI, CM, GA, ML, MR, NE, SN, TD, TG.  Patent  written in English.    Application: WO  2008-US77518  20080924.  Priority: US  2007-869297  20071009.  CAN 150:430692    AN 2009:456222    CAPLUS   (Copyright (C) 2011 ACS on SciFinder (R))  

A self tanning compn. contg. at least one self tanning agent and at least one kinase inhibitor operable to inhibit the kinase induced phosphorylation of the self tanning agent and a method for increasing the efficacy of self tanning agents, and a method for tanning skin are disclosed.  The skin tanning agent is dihydroxyacetone (at 0.001-50%) and can be used in combination with glucose, fructose, erythrulose, xylose, or mixts. thereof.  The kinase inhibitor, glycerol 3-phosphate, is present at 0.0001-25%.

Origins: Waste places, roadsides, gardens, and pastures.

Uses: The herb is used as a stimulant and emmenagogue. In Europe it has been used to treat heart palpitations and asthma.

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Traditionally in Europe, Motherwort, as its name implies, was given for  “female weaknesses and disorders.” It was used to treat hysteria, palpitations, fainting, tremors, and to induce a “quiet passivity of the mind.” Culpeper wrote about motherwort that “there is no better herb to drive melancholy vapours from the heart, to strengthen and make the mind cheerful, blithe and merry…” Commission E approves it for thyroid dysfunction and nervous heart complaints. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, different Motherwort species (L. sibiricus and L. heterophyllus) known as Yi Mu Cao was used to regulate menses and increase urine flow to reduce swelling from edema

Part used::
Aerial parts

Origin:
Europe, Asia
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Origin:

Native to Europe; also distributed in Himalayas from Kashmir to Kumaon.

Action:

Stomachic, laxative, antispasmodic, diaphoretic, emmenagogue (used in absent or painful menstruation, premenstrual tension, menopausal flushes). Hypnotic, sedative. Used as a cardiac tonic. (Studies in China have shown that Motherwort extracts show antiplatelet aggregation actions and decrease the levels of blood lipids.)

1) Fitoterapia : vademecum de prescripción. 4ª  ed. Barcelona : Masson, 2003, p.94.

2) SHIKOV, Alexander N., et al. Effect of Leonurus cardiaca oil extract in patients with arterial hypertension accompanied by anxiety and sleep disorders. Phytotherapy Research. 2011, vol.25, nº4, p.540-543.
 
3) MILKOWSKA-LEYCK, Katarzyna; FILIPEK, Barbara; STRZELECKA, Halina.  Pharmacological effects of lavandulifolioside from Leonurus cardiaca. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 2002, vol.80, nº1, p.85-90.
 
4) RITTER, Malte, et al. Cardiac and electrophysiological effects of primary and refined extracts from Leonurus cardiaca L. (Ph.Eur.). Planta medica. 2010, vol.76, nº6, p.572-582.

5) ALONSO, Jorge R. Tratado de fitomedicina : bases clínicas y farmacológicas. Buenos Aires : ISIS, 1998, p. 180.

6) A guide to medicinal plants of  Appalachia/ Krochmal, Arnold; Walter, Russel S.; Doughty, Richard M.: USA: U.S.D.A Forest Service:,1959

7) Hull, Kathleen; Photog. Hull, Meredith /Indiana Medical History Museum: Guide to the Medicinal Plant Garden./ USA: Indiana Medical History Museum. 2010. -- p. 58.

8) Khare, C.P./ Indian Medicinal Plants. -- Nueva Dheli: Springer, 2007 . - p 372.