CARDIOTONIC ACTION OF GOMPHOCARPUS FRUTICOSUS L.B.Br.

The present paper reports the cardiotonic action of tincture of Gomphocarpus fruti- cosus, an African plant cultivated in Yunnan province. Its tincture was found to be cardiotonic by experiments on the frog heart and the rabbit heart in situ, and by the Langendorff method in perfusion on the isolated guinea pig heart, as well as the changes of EKG in rabbits. When assayed according to the method recorded for digitalis in the Chinese Pharmacopeia, the MLD of the crude drug for pigeons was found to be 49.21± 2.75 (S.D.) mg/kg.