Treatment of angina pectoris by medicinal plants and phytomedicines

Abstract

Angina pectoris (AP) is one the most widespread chronic diseases in Ukraine. The treatment of AP is an important task for now, because its complications lead to death very often. There is a great amount of medicines for AP treatment. A lot of them are ones of synthetic origin. These medicines are very effective, but, in the same time, they have disadvantages, for example, high price, marked side effects, etc. It is known, that medicinal plants are unable to be used instead of synthetic anti-anginal agents. But they may be used as a very good supplement of the anti-anginal therapy, especially in early stages of the disease. So, medicinal plants, that may be used for AP treatment, are widely used by folk medicine and several ones of them are also used by official medicine. For example, the latters are Crataegus sanguinea, Valeriana officinalis, Convallaria majalis, Digitalis lanata, Mentha piperita, Leonurus quinquelobatus, Adonis vernalis, etc. The complex of biologically active substances (BAS) of named plants includes cardiac glycosides, flavonoids, alkaloids, cumarins, organic acids, vitamins, macro- and microelements. This complex of BAS cause cardiotonic, spasmolytic, anticoagulant, diuretic, sedative, vasodilative and hypotensive effects. All of these pharmacological effects correspond to the main strategies of AP treatment.