• Garcinia pedunculata, a medicinal plant commonly called ‘Borthekera’ in the Assamese language, traditionally forbidden for raw consumption, has been found to protect from heart diseases.

• Scientists of Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), an autonomous institute of the department of science and technology (DST), reported the findings where it is said that the sun-dried slices of the ripe fruit are used for culinary and medicinal purposes and are known to have therapeutic properties like anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-diabetic, hypolipidemic, nephroprotective, and even neuroprotective activity.

• Administration of the dried pulp of the ripe fruit of the medicinal plant reduced cardiac hypertrophy indicators and oxidative stress and heart inflammation brought on by ISO.

• With scientific interventions seeking proof of these claims, multiple studies have been reported that G. pedunculata is a rich source of antioxidants. However, the cardioprotective potential was yet to be explored.

How the study was conducted?

• Scientists of IASST explored this medicinal plant’s potential to prevent heart diseases. A double dosage of bioactive chloroform fraction (GC) of the herb was fed to Wistar rats at 24-hour intervals (85mg/kg body weight) for 28 days.

• To assess the therapeutic effect, this was followed by injection of isoproterenol following the isoproterenol-induced myocardial infarction model. 

• All the animals were analysed, revealing that the disease group had significant ST wave (ST is the segment representing the interval between depolarisation and repolarisation of the heart’s ventricles) elevation, indicating myocardial infarction, which was normalised with Atenolol and GC treatment.

• Cardiac hypertrophy, cardiac troponin I, tissue lipid peroxidation, and serum inflammatory markers were all significantly elevated in the disease group, which were maintained at near-normal levels in the GC pretreated groups. The endogenous antioxidants were also revamped in the GC-treated groups.

• Scientists have attributed these improvements to the excellent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential of GC that helped protect the heart against isoproterenol-induced injury.

• The results strongly infer the good cardioprotective potential of G. pedunculata fruit abundantly available in northeast India.

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