Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2019 Jul 20;9(7):292.
doi: 10.3390/biom9070292.

Antihypertensive Indigenous Lebanese Plants: Ethnopharmacology and a Clinical Trial

Ali A Samaha  1   2   3   4 , Mirna Fawaz  2 , Ali Salami  5 , Safaa Baydoun  6 , Ali H Eid  7   8
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Antihypertensive Indigenous Lebanese Plants: Ethnopharmacology and a Clinical Trial

Ali A Samaha et al. Biomolecules. .

Abstract

Hypertension is highly prevalent among the Lebanese adult population and is indeed the major cause of mortality in Lebanon. Traditional use of antihypertensive medicinal plants has long been practiced. The aim of this study is to document this traditional knowledge and clinically test the antihypertensive capacity of three of the most commonly used wild plant species Mentha longifolia, Viola odorata and Urtica dioica. Ethno-pharmacological data was collected by personal interviews with herbalists and traditional healers using a semi structured survey questionnaire and assessing relative frequency of citation (RFC). The clinical study was conducted by a randomized, blind, placebo-controlled trial in 29 subjects with mild hypertension distributed in four groups, three plant extract treatments and one placebo. Systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressures (DBP) as well as mean arterial blood pressures (MAP) were monitored at weeks 4, 8, 12 and 16 during the treatment with 300 mL/day of plant extract. Results showed that M. longifolia, U. dioica and V. odorata exhibited the highest values of RCF (0.95) followed by Allium ampeloprasum (0.94), Apium graveolens (0.92) and Crataegus azarolus (0.90). The clinical trial revealed dose- and duration-dependent significant reductions in SBP, DBP and MAP of subjects treated with M. longifolia, U. dioica or V. odorata. Our findings indicate that extracts of these plants present an effective, safe and promising potential as a phyto-therapuetical approach for the treatment of mild hypertension. More research on the phytochemistry, pharmacological effects and the underlying mechanisms is necessary.

Keywords: Mentha longifolia; Urtica dioica; Viola odorata; herbal medicine; hypertension.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Means ± SD of SBP, measured over 16-week intake of 300 mL/day of M. longifolia (M.L.), V.odorata (V.O.) and U. dioica (U.D.) in mild hypertensive subjects. ** p < 0.01 (M.L. and U.D. compared to Placebo at week 8 and M.L., V.O., and U.D. compared to Placebo at weeks 12 and 16).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Means ± SD of DBP, measured over 16-week intake of 300 mL/day of M. longifolia (M.L.), V.odorata (V.O.) and U. dioica (U.D.) in mild hypertensive subjects.* p < 0.05 (U.D. compared to Placebo), ** p < 0.01 (M.L., V.O., and U.D. compared to Placebo).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Means ± SD of MAP, measured over 16-week intake of 300 mL/day of M. longifolia (M.L.), V.odorata (V.O.) and U. dioica (U.D.) in mild hypertensive subjects. ** p < 0.01 (M.L. and U.D. compared to Placebo at week 8 and M.L., V.O., and U.D. compared to Placebo at weeks 12 and 16).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC) Worldwide trends in blood pressure from 1975 to 2015: A pooled analysis of 1479 population-based measurement studies with 19.1 million participants. Lancet. 2017;389:37–55. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31919-5. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Forouzanfar M.H., Liu P., Roth G.A., Ng M., Biryukov S., Marczak L., Alexander L., Estep K., Hassen Abate K., Akinyemiju T.F., et al. Global Burden of Hypertension and Systolic Blood Pressure of at Least 110 to 115 mm Hg, 1990–2015. JAMA. 2017;317:165–182. doi: 10.1001/jama.2016.19043. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Egan B.M., Kjeldsen S.E., Grassi G., Esler M., Mancia G. The global burden of hypertension exceeds 1.4 billion people: Should a systolic blood pressure target below 130 become the universal standard? J. Hypertens. 2019 doi: 10.1097/HJH.0000000000002021. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Huffman M.D., Lloyd-Jones D.M. Global Burden of Raised Blood Pressure: Coming Into Focus. JAMA. 2017;317:142–143. doi: 10.1001/jama.2016.19685. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Salem H., Hasan D.M., Eameash A., Abd El-Mageed H., Hasan S., Ali R. Worldwide Prevalence of Hypertension: A Pooled Meta-Analysis of 1670 Studies in 71 Countries with 29.5 Million Participants. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2018;71:1819. doi: 10.1016/S0735-1097(18)32360-X. - DOI

Publication types