Dragon's blood dropping pills have protective effects on focal cerebral ischemia rats model

Dragon's blood is a bright red resin obtained from Dracaena cochinchinensis (Lour.) S.C.Chen (Yunnan, China). As a traditional Chinese medicinal herb, it has great traditional medicinal value and is used for wound healing and to stop bleeding. Its main biological activity comes from phenolic compounds. In this study, phenolic compounds were made into dropping pills and their protective effects were examined by establishing focal cerebral ischemia rats model used method of Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion (MCAO), and by investigating indexes of neurological scores, infarct volume, cerebral index, cerebral water content and oxidation stress. Compared to model group, high, middle and low groups of Dragon's blood dropping pills could improve the neurological function significantly (p <0.01) and reduce cerebral infarct volume of focal cerebral ischemia rats remarkably (p <0.05-0.01). Meanwhile, each group could alleviate cerebral water content and cerebral index (p <0.05-0.01) and regulate oxidative stress of focal cerebral ischemia rats obviously (p <0.05-0.01). Activities of middle group corresponded with that treated with positive control drug. The results obtained here showed that Dragon's blood dropping pills had protective effects on focal cerebral ischemia rats. (C) 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.