ABSTRACT
Parkia biglobosa is one of the main medicinal plants used in traditional medicine to treat cardiovascular diseases in Africa. We investigated cardioprotective effects of stem bark hydro-alcoholic extract (HAE) of P. biglobosa in isoproterenol (ISO) induced myocardial infarction (MI). Four groups of five Wistar rats of each were used. Group I, control group, received per os (p.o) saline solution (5ml kg-1 b.w.) as vehicle daily for 15 days and was injected subcutaneously with the vehicle (5ml kg-1 b.w.) at an interval of 24 hours, on day 14 and 15. Group II referred to as infarcted rats, received vehicle p.o and was injected subcutaneously with isoproterenol (125 mg kg-1 b.w.) as in group I. Groups III and IV were pre-treated p.o with HAE (90 and 60 mg kg-1 b.w. respectively) daily for 15 days and was injected subcutaneously Isoproterenol (125 mg kg-1 b.w.). ISO has induced MI, characterized by significant increased (p <0.001) of MDA, biochemical alterations, heart hypertrophy and histological changes in infarcted rats. HAE, prevented significantly (p <0.001) induction of all these anomalies in pre-treated rats. These results suggested cardioprotective effects of P.biglobosa against ISO induced MI.