Effect of Ocimum sanctum fixed oil on blood pressure, blood clotting time and pentobarbitone-induced sleeping time

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Abstract

Ocimum sanctum fixed oil produced hypotensive effect in anaesthetised dog, which seems to be due to its peripheral vasodilatory action. The oil increased blood-clotting time and percentage increase was comparable to aspirin and could be due to inhibition of platelet aggregation. The oil also increased pentobarbitone-induced sleeping time in rats indicating probable inhibitory effect of oil towards cytochromic enzyme responsible for hepatic metabolism of pentobarbitone.

Introduction

Ocimum sanctum L. (labiatae) commonly known as ‘Holy basil’ is a herbaceous sacred plant found throughout India. Indian materia medica describes the use of the plant in a variety of ailments (Nadkarni, 1976). In our earlier studies, O. sanctum fixed oil was found to possess significant anti-inflammatory (Singh et al., 1996a), antipyretic, analgesic, anti-arthritic and antiulcer activity (Singh and Majumdar, 1995a, Singh and Majumdar, 1995b, Singh and Majumdar, 1996, Singh and Majumdar, 1999) without any noticeable toxicity (Singh and Majumdar, 1994). In a clinical trial, the fixed oil was also found to be effective against bovine mastitis (Singh et al., 1995). The fixed oil contains five fatty acids viz. palmitic (11.69%), stearic (3.19%), oleic (13.82%), linoleic (52.23%) and linolenic (16.63%) (Singh et al., 1996b) and linolenic acid (a dual inhibitor of arachidonate metabolism), appears to be responsible for the antiinflammatory activity of the oil (Singh and Majumdar, 1997). In the present study, the effect of fixed oil on blood pressure, blood clotting time and pentobarbitone-induced sleeping time have been evaluated.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

Dried seeds of O. sanctum were collected from Maidan Garhi (New Delhi, India) and were authenticated by a resident botanist of the Department of Genetics, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi and voucher samples were deposited in the Department of Genetics. The seeds were crushed and cold macerated in petroleum ether (40–60 °C) (S.D. Fine Chemicals Ltd, India) for 3 days. The petroleum ether was evaporated from the extract and oil was filtered to clarity (weight per ml at 25 °C is

Results

The results (Fig. 1) indicate that O. sanctum fixed oil produced hypotensive effect in anaesthetised dog. The fixed oil blocked the biphasic response of adrenaline and depressor response to isoproterenol. The oil partially suppressed the hypotensive response of histamine and acetylcholine. The oil increased blood-clotting time significantly and the percentage increase was comparable to that obtained with aspirin (Table 1). The oil also potentiated pentobarbitone-induced sleeping time in mice in

Discussion and conclusions

The effect of O. sanctum fixed oil on blood pressure was studied in anaesthetised dog. The fixed oil produced a progressive fall in blood pressure and blocked the biphasic response of adrenaline and hypotensive effect of isoproterenol. When adrenaline is injected intravenously into an anaesthetised animal, the blood pressure rises rapidly to a peak and then falls below the initial level (baseline) before returning to the baseline (biphasic response). The mechanism of the rise in blood pressure

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to various pharmaceutical companies (cited in text) for supplying various drug samples and University Grants Commission, Government of India, New Delhi, for financial assistance.

References (22)

  • D.F. Horrobin

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      The major components of fixed oil, linoleic acid and linolenic acid (an ω-3 fatty acid, cis-9,12,15-octadecatrienoic acid) were supposed to be responsible for its anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant, hypotensive, chemopreventive, antihypercholesterolaemic and immunomodulatory activities (Singh et al., 2007). Fixed oil of Os is reported for anti-inflammatory, antiarthritic, antimicrobial and antiulcer properties (Singh and Majumdar, 1997; Singh and Majumdar, 1999a; Singh and Majumdar, 1999b; Singh et al., 2001a, 2001b). The anti-inflammatory activity of fixed oil is due to the dual inhibition of arachidonate metabolism and antihistaminic activity (Singh et al., 2007).

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