Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Review Article | OPEN ACCESS

Potential beneficial effects of Tulbaghia violacea William Henry Harvey (Alliaceae) on cardiovascular system - A review

Ismaila Raji¹ , Kenechukwu Obikeze², Pierre Mugabo²

¹Faculty of Medicine, National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe; ²School of Pharmacy, University of the Western Cape, South Africa.

For correspondence:- Ismaila Raji Email: ismailaraji@gmail.com

Received: 9 May 2014 Accepted: 19 April 2015 Published: 29 June 2015

Citation: Raji I, Obikeze K, Mugabo P. Potential beneficial effects of Tulbaghia violacea William Henry Harvey (Alliaceae) on cardiovascular system - A review. Trop J Pharm Res 2015; 14(6):1111-1117 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v14i6.25

© 2015 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Tulbaghia violacea William Henry Harvey (Harv. Alliaceae) is a small bulbous herb belonging to the family Alliaceae. It is used in South Africa to treat fever, colds, asthma, paralysis, and hypertension. Meanwhile, cardiovascular disease accounts for about 30 % of total global death, with most of these deaths occurring in low and middle-income countries. Furthermore, people in low-income countries are still largely dependent on plants in their surroundings for both prophylaxis and treatment of diseases, partly due to limited access to and cost of pharmaceuticals, and folkloric evidence of the potency of medicinal plants and/or local belief systems. Therefore, the present review aims to proffer possible ways by which T. violacea may improve cardiovascular outcomes. An extensive and systematic review of the literature was carried out, and relevant findings presented in this review. There is evidence that T. violacea may modulate the renin-angiotensin system, the autonomic nervous system, oxidative stress and haemostasis, with resultant protection of the cardiovascular system in both health and disease.

Keywords: Tulbaghia violacea, Spontaneously hypertensive rats, Hypertension, Blood pressure, Heart rate, Renin-angiotensin aldosterone system