The cardiovascular effects of Centella asiatica (CA) leave juice were studied using hypertensive animal model.Single oral administration of lyophilized powder of CA leave juice at doses 16, 24 and 32 g of fresh leaves/kg (equivalent to 0.26, 0.38 and 0.52 g of lyophilized powder/kg) on blood pressure, heart rate and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) were investigated in deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA)-salt hypertensive rats. CA lyophilized juice powder contained asiaticoside 0.42% w/w. The results showed that CA leave juice had blood pressure lowering and slight negative chronotropic effect in DOCA-salt hypertensive group, but not in normal. CA leave juice at the doses of 24 and 32 g/kg BW significantly decreased blood pressure from 30 to 90 and from 45 to 60 min with the maximal reduction of 11% and 12%, respectively, at 45 min in DOCA-salt hypertensive group. In addition, these two doses of CA leave juice significantly decreased HR at 60 and 45 min, respectively. Captopril at dose 25 mg/kg BW significantly reduced blood pressure at 30 to 120 min with a maximal reduction of 20% at 60 min and 19% at 90 min. in normal and DOCA-salt hypertensive groups, respectively. The significant effect on heart rate were not observed after captopril administration in both groups.
Prior administration of CA leave juice, the rCBF level of DOCA-salt hypertensive group was significantly low, compared to that of the normal. After CA leave juice administration at the dose of 32 g/Kg BW, rCBF increased significantly at 5-90 and 5-120 min in normal and DOCA-salt hypertensive groups, respectively. The increased rCBF was greater in DOCA-salt hypertensive than normal group (maximum increased rCBF: 52.27% vs 37.37 %). The increased rCBF was accompanied with significant decreased blood pressure at 15 to 120 min only in DOCA-salt hypertensive group. The maximum decrease of SBP and DBP were 13.86and 14.10 % at 60 minutes. These results demonstrates that CA leave juice possesses the actions as antihypertensive and regional cerebral blood flow enhancement in both normal and hypertensive rats. The present study suggested the beneficial use of CA in elderly especially in hypertensive condition.