Cardiotonics

The Oxford College of Pharmacy, Hongasandra, Bangalore- 560068
Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, PCI and Accredited by National Board of Accreditation.
Recognized by the Government of Karnataka.
I YEAR D.PHARM PHARMACOGNOSY
Topic
Cardiotonics
Mrs Sweeka K C
Ast Professor
Department of Pharmacognosy
The Oxford College of Pharmacy, Bangalore

What are Cardiotonics drugs?
Cardiotonics (Greek Kardia – Heart)
• The drugs which give strength or energy to the activity
of the heart
• The cardiotonics increase the force of contraction of
cardiac muscles and stimulate the overall activity of the
heart
• Example: Digitalis, Squill, Arjuna bark, Thevetia,
Strophanthus are the natural Cardiotonic drugs
Arjuna bark
Digitalis

DIGITALIS
Synonyms: Digitalis, purple foxglove, finger flower, lady’s glove, Fox-glove
Leaves, Folia Digitalis.
Biological Sources: Digitalis consists of dried leaves of Digitalis purpurea Linn.
The leaves should contain not more than 5% of moisture.
Family: Scrophulariaceae.
Geographical Sources: It is mainly found in England, Germany, France, North
America, India, Iraq, Japan, Kurdistan, Mexico, Nepal, Spain, Turkey.
Digitalis

Cultivation and Collection:
• Digitalis is a biennial herb or perennial herb of about 1-2 metres in height
• It is cultivated in Kashmir, Nilgiri hills & Mungapoo
• Propagation done by Seeds of selected strain containing high glycosidal content
• Soil: Calcarious, sandy, light soil with traces of Manganese. The soil is sterilized by steam before sowing
• Altitude: 1600-3000 m
• Seeds are very small in size i.e 100 seeds weigh 40-70 mg so they are mixed with fine sand and sown in nursery beds
in March/April. About 2.5 kg seeds are needed per hectare
• Seedlings transplanted in September & November
• Well manured and kept free from weeds

• Plantation done twice a year. First year the plant bears rosette leaves & Second year the plant bears sessile
leaves
• The plant flowers in the month of April followed by fruiting
• If plants are further allowed to grow & the flowering tops are removed
• Crop protected from plant diseases otherwise it leads to loss of activity of the drug
• Leaves are picked up in the afternoon during August & September in the first year when 2/3rd of the flowers are
fully developed
• Collection of leaves from the basal part at dry weather.

Preparation for Market:
After collection the leaves should be dried as soon as possible at 60°C in Vacuum driers. By quick drying
characteristic green colour of the leaves is maintained. Drying is carried out till moisture is not more than 5%. Leaves
are packed under pressure in airtight containers.

Morphology:
Color: Dark greyish green
Odour: Slight
Taste: Bitter
Size: 10-40 cm (l), 4-20 cm(w)
Shape: Ovate-lanceolate to broadly ovate with
irregular crenate/serrate/denate margin

Microscopy:
• Digitalis has dorsiventral leaf structure.
• It has plenty of simple covering and glandular trichomes on both the surfaces.
• The covering trichomes are uniseriate, usually three to four cells long, having collapsed cells, acute apex and
finely warty cuticle.
• The glandular trichomes have a short, unicellular stalk and bicellular or rarely unicellular head.
• It has anomocytic or ranunculaceous type of stomata.
• Trichomes and stomata are more in lower surface.
• The pericycle is parenchymatous above and collenchymatous below.
• Calcium oxalate crystals are absent.

T.S. (schematic) of Digitalis leaf Transverse section of Digitalis leaf

Chemical Constituents:
• Digitalis Contain 0.2-0.45% mixture of Cardiac glycosides (Cardenolides), purpurea glycosides A & B which
are primary glycosides
• It also contains several other glycosides such as Odoroside H, Glucogitaloxin, Gitaloxin, Verodoxin and
Glucoverodoxin which is the product of hydrolysis of purpurea glycosides A & B

Chemical Tests:
Digitalis glycosides having five membered lactone ring answers positive for the following tests which are due to the
intact lactone.
Baljet Test: To a thick section of the leaf sodium picrate reagent is added. Yellow to orange colour indicates the
presence of glycoside.
Legal Test: Glycoside is dissolved in pyridine and sodium nitroprusside solution is added to it and made alkaline.
Pink to red colour is produced.
Keller–Killiani Test: The isolated glycoside is dissolved in glacial acetic acid and a drop of ferric chloride solution is
added followed by the addition of sulphuric acid which forms the lower layer. A reddish-brown colour is seen in
between two liquids and the upper layer becomes bluish green.

Uses:
• Digitalis increases excitability of cardiac
muscles & produces more powerful
contractions
• Effective in Congestive cardiac failure as
cardiac tonic
• Diuretic
• Antidiabetic
• Antioxidant
• Antitumor
• cytotoxic
Adulterants:
• Verbascum thapsus also known as Mullelin leaves. These leaves are
covered with large woolly branched candelabra trichomes.
• Primula vulgaris (Primrose leaves) can be detected by the presence
of long eight- to nine-celled covering trichomes in them.
• Symphytum officinale (Comfrey leaves), this leaves
contains multicellular trichomes forming hook at the top.
• Inula conyza (Ploughman’s Spikenard), may be distinguished by
their greater roughness, the less-divided margins, the teeth of which
have horny points and odour when rubbed.

ARJUNA
Synonyms: Arjun bark, Arjun
Biological Source: Arjuna consists of dried stem bark of the plant known
as Terminalia arjuna Rob it should contain NLT 0.02% of arjungenin on dried basis.
Family: Combretaceae.
Geographical Source: The tree is common in Indian peninsula. It is grown by the
side of streams and very common in Chhota Nagpur region.

• Arjuna is found as naturally growing plant in the dense forests
• It can be successfully raised by sowing seeds or by means of stumps
• The seeds take about 21 days for germination
• Soil: It needs moist fertile alluvial loam
• Rainfall: Range of 75 to 190 cm
• Temperature: 45°C
• The bark is also collected from wild growing plants, and it is reported that yield per tree varies from 9 to 55 kg

Morphology:
Arjuna bark

Chemical Constituents:
• Arjuna contains 15% of Tannins (Hydrolysable & Condensed)
• It also contains Triterpenoids saponins, Arjunolic acid, Arjunic acid, Arjungenin
• In addition it contains β-sitosterol, Ellagic acid & Arjunic acid

Chemical Test:
• Ethereal extract of arjuna shows
pinkish fluorence under ultra-
violet light.
Uses:
• As diuretic and astringent
• Antioxidant
• Antihypertensive
• Would healing
• Antimicrobial
• It is used in the treatment of various heart diseases in
indigenous systems of medicines
• The bark was extensively used in the past by the local
tanneries for tanning animal hides

Adulterants:
The dried bark of the plant Terminalia tomentosa is used as an adulterant for the drug. However, it
can be distinguished from arjuna bark by fluorescence test.
Ethereal extract of arjuna gives pink fluorescence, whereas T. tomentosa gives pale blue.

Cardiotonics

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