Abstract
Serum creatine kinase (CK), creatine kinase isoenzyme (CK-MB) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) are key players in the diagnostic study of cardiac complications. These enzymes are specific diagnostic markers of myocardial infarction and hypertension is a disease condition characterized with a wide range of complications, including myocardial infarction. In this study, we determined the effects of interaction of vitamin A and Rauwolfia vomitoria (RV) root bark extract on marker enzymes of cardiac diseases. CK and CK-MB activities had significant decrease in the group of animals with concomitant administration of vitamin A (40 IU/kg body wt.) and 150 mg/kg body wt. of RV root bark extract. At the interaction of vitamin A with 300 mg/kg body wt. RV root bark extract, CK-MB only showed significant (p ≥ 0.05) decrease while CK decreased insignificantly. Also at the interaction of vitamin A with 300 mg/kg body wt. RV root bark extract, AST increased significantly but decreased significantly at the interaction of vitamin A (40 IU/kg body wt.) and 150 mg/kg body wt. of RV root bark extract. Our findings showed that vitamin A dose did not lower the activities of cardiac marker enzymes. However, concomitant administration of RV root bark extract at 150 mg/kg body wt. with vitamin A shows significant reduction in the activities of CK, CK-MB and AST. These findings suggest that interaction of vitamin A with RV root bark extract would be a meaningful ethno-pharmaceutical approach in the management of myocardial infarction and treatment of hypertension.