Category:Cardiovascular herbs

A cardiovascular herb is a plant medicine used to support cardiovascular function, treat cardiovascular symptoms, or modify cardiovascular risk. The Western clinical tradition has organised these herbs into a small number of mechanistically distinct groups: the cardiac glycoside plants (the historical foxglove and lily of the valley, whose isolated active principles became the pharmaceutical digoxin), the cardiotonic-and-hypotensive hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna and C. laevigata), the antiplatelet garlic (Allium sativum) and ginger (Zingiber officinale), the antihypertensive hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdariffa) and olive leaf (Olea europaea), and the lipid-modifying red yeast rice (Monascus purpureus on rice; produces monacolin K, identical to the pharmaceutical lovastatin).

The foundational cardiovascular herb is hawthorn, with substantial controlled-trial evidence for symptomatic improvement in NYHA class I-II heart failure (the SPICE trial, the cumulative meta-analyses) and a long European clinical-pharmacology tradition. The hawthorn flavonoid (oligomeric procyanidins, vitexin-rhamnoside) fraction has demonstrated mild inotropic, mild vasodilator, and antiarrhythmic effects in animal models. The Western clinical use overlaps substantially with the European phytotherapy tradition (Commission E approved for stage II NYHA heart failure) and with the British Herbal Pharmacopoeia.

The TCM cardiovascular tradition is distinct in its herbal approach to the same indications. Dan shen (Salvia miltiorrhiza), used for two thousand years for "blood stasis" patterns (coronary disease, ischaemic stroke recovery), contains the tanshinone diterpenes and salvianolic acids with substantial antiplatelet and antioxidant evidence; it is one of the principal medicines of the contemporary Chinese cardiovascular materia medica. San qi (Panax notoginseng), the haemostatic-and-antithrombotic Yunnan ginseng, is used both topically and orally for cardiovascular indications. The Ayurvedic arjuna (Terminalia arjuna) has a Charaka Samhita lineage and contemporary controlled-trial evidence for stable angina.

The antihypertensive and lipid-modifying herbs cross into the antihypertensives and lipid-lowering agents pharmaceutical umbrellas. The interaction profile is clinically substantial: hawthorn and digoxin (additive cardiac glycoside effect; not recommended in combination), garlic and antiplatelet medicines (additive bleeding risk), red yeast rice and statins (additive HMG-CoA reductase inhibition and myopathy risk).

Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna and C. laevigata), garlic (Allium sativum), ginger (Zingiber officinale), hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdariffa), olive leaf (Olea europaea), red yeast rice (Monascus purpureus on rice), dan shen (Salvia miltiorrhiza), san qi (Panax notoginseng), arjuna (Terminalia arjuna), motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca), lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis; restricted, cardiac glycoside), night-blooming cereus (Selenicereus grandiflorus; the historical Eclectic cardiotonic), the historical foxglove (Digitalis purpurea and D. lanata; now used principally as the source of pharmaceutical digoxin rather than as a herbal preparation), and the lipid-modifying psyllium (Plantago ovata) and oat bran (Avena sativa).

The boundary of this category is "herb whose principal or important indication is cardiovascular." The plant-derived pharmaceuticals that have been isolated into pharmaceutical use (digoxin from foxglove; the older cardiac glycosides ouabain and digitoxin) are listed under heart failure medications and at their individual medicine pages; the corresponding herbal pages document the parent plant. The antihypertensive and lipid-modifying pharmaceuticals are listed under their primary umbrellas. The omega-3 fish-oil preparations are not herbal medicines and are listed under omega-3 fatty acids.

This category page is an encyclopedia article about its subject. The actual index of herbs belonging to the category is generated automatically by the wiki engine, from category-membership declarations on the individual herb pages, and appears at the foot of the page below the references.