CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The heart is a hollow muscular cone-shaped organ lying between the

lungs in a block of tissue called the mediastinum (Khader 2004). The heart

begins beating some few weeks following conception and beats throughout

life (Khader 2004). It is also the strongest muscle in the human body and

functions to maintain a constant circulation of blood throughout the body it

also acts as a pump and its action is composed of a series of events known as

the cardiac cycle. The heart is composes of three layers of tissue which are;

the pericardium the myocardium and the Endocardium. The heart acts as a

pump which drives blood into and through the arteries but the right and the

left side of the heart functions separately from one another some of the

diseases associated with the cardiovascular system includes coronary heart

diseases (CHD) which is the most common of heart diseases and it occurs

when the arteries supplying blood to the heart narrow or harden from the

build-up of plaque (Gina 1996.)Ischemic heart disease cerebrovascular

disease( CeVD)peripheral vascular disease Heart Failure etc and some of

the pharmacological treatment includes Angiotesin commonly prescribes

includes Benazepril Captopril Moexipril Beta Blockers which includes

Acebutolol Betaxololetc.

The heart marker enzymes includes creatine kinasse(CK-MB)which is

the enzyme used as the definitive serum marker for the diagnosis or

exclusion of acute myocardial infarction (Andreas2009).

Troponin 1 Rapid test which is a lateral flow chromatographic

immunoassay for the qualitative detection of cardiac Troponin

1(CTn1)and its complex in human serum or plasma at the level equal or

higher than 1ng/ml. Myoglobin which is also designed for qualitative

determination of myoglobin in human whole blood serum or plasma as

an aid in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction (MI) and myoglobin is

also a low molecular weight cytoplasm protein which is released into the

blood stream when muscle cells are damaged and this protein is released

into the blood stream more rapidly than any other myocardial marker

and elevated levels can be detected as early as one (1) hour after the

onset of AMI(Penttila2002). Demodium velutinum has been suggested

to have some therapeutic effect in the treatment of cardiovascular

disorder and in the reducing of high cholesterol content in the body.

Demodium Velutinum is one of the few shrubs species that has been

identified as a well adapted to acid tropical soil and a good nutritive

value(Schultze-Kraft 2002).Every culture has relied on the variety of

natural medicines found in healing plants for the therapeutic properties

(Armstrong2004).Researchers find that food and their individual

constituents perform similar fashion to modern drugs and sometimes

better without the dreaded side effect. The leaves and young stems are

rich in crude protein and mineral elements and can provide higher levels

of some nutrient (Bakker 1994). Natural plants have been valuable

sources of mineral agent with proven potential of treating infectious

diseases and with lesser side effects compared to the synthetic drug

agents(Guyton 2002).Hence potentially useful drugs can often be

recognized from their relative importance and uses in folk medicine.

Extract of Desmodium velutinum stem are used traditionally in some

diseases condition particularly headache and may be a source of a

pharmacological active agent useful in the treatment of aches and

pain(Anowi2012). This work aimed at investigating any

hypocholesterolemic activity in the N-hexane extract of Desmodium

Velutinum stem.