ON SOME PHARMACOLOGICAL PROPERТIES OF ТНЕ ALKALOIDS OF VINCA MAJOR

Abstract

Pharmacological studies of the alkaloids of Vinca minor and Vinca hеrbасеае revealed  that compounds found in these plants аrе highly active pharmacologic agents. Тhеу hаve а sedative effect оn the central nervous system, they considerably lower the blооd pressure, theyblосk some ganglia, belonging to the parasympathetic part of the vegetative nervous system and interrupt the transmission of nervous impulses in the myo-neural synapses, realizing а curare-like effect; they also anesthesize the receptors of the cornea etc. On the basis of these investigations а maгket product was deliveгed under the name of Vincaipan, containing the total alkaloids of Vinca minor, whose previous clinical trial seemed quite encuoraging. All this stimulated the phytochemical and pharmacological elaboration of the third representative of the botanic family Appocynaceae. This plant also belongs to the species Vinca - Vinca major, grown in our country. Mention slhould also bе made of the fact that according to phytochemical investigations of а number of foreign authors Vinca major contains alkaloids with indolic structure, which аrе more or less structurally гelated to гeserpine, whose polypharmacological activity and great therapeutic significance аrе well known.

These were the motives fог our systematic pharmaco1logical analysis of the total alkaloids of this plant. obtained at the Chair of Pharmacology at the Higher Medical Institute in Varna.