STNDIES ON TOLERANCE TOWARD HYPOXIA AND CARDIAC HEMODYNAMICS OF SALVIA MILTIORRHZA COMPOSITA IN ANIMALS

Injectio Salvia miltiorrhizae Composita is composed of 1:1 extracts of Salvia miltiorrhiza and Dalbergia odorifera.The intraperitoneal injections (ip) of 20 g/kg of this composita prolonged significantly the survival time of the mice under normobaric hypoxia, and this protective effect lasted at least 3 hours. The ip of 10～20 g/kg resulted in a prolongation of survival time and an elevation of survival % of the mice under hypobaric hypoxia. The ip of 5 g/kg also lengthened notably the survival time of rats. Guanethidine, in both initial and late phases of its action, lowered the tolerance towards the hypobaric hypoxia of mice, whereas this composita could restore the tolerance only in the late phase of guanethidine action. After ip 30 g/kg in mice, the O₂ consumption rate was slowed down in normobaric hypoxia, and the survival time was prolonged remarkably which decreased the residual O₂ content more than the control mice at the time of death. It is suggested that this composita might improve the O₂ utilization during hypoxia.In the concentration of 10 mg/ml this composita enhanced markedly the coronary flow on isolated guinea pig hearts, but not on fibrillating hearts. When this coinposita was given intravenously (ⅳ) 4 g/kg, the % of myocardial uptake of ~(86)Rb was not raised in rats. This indicates that the myocardial blood flow was not augmented.In anesthetized open-chest dogs, the ⅳ of 1 g/kg produced no marked alteration of coronary blood flow and coronary resistance. The ⅳ injection of 0.75g/kg did not yield remarkable influence on cardiac hemodynamic results either.