Evaluation of Anti-Platelet Aggregation Effect of Some Allium Species.

Epidemiologic studies show that the cardiovascular diseases are associated with multiple factors such as raised serum total cholesterol, increased LDL, increased platelet aggregation, hypertension and smoking. In-vitro studies have confirmed the ability of some plants of Allium species to reduce these parameters. Therefore, we evaluated anti-platelet aggregation effect of some Allium species (Allium ampeloprasum, A. hirtifolium, A. haemanthoides, A. vavillovi, A. atroviolaceum, A. jesdianum, A. shelkovnikovii) using arachidonic acid (AA) and adenosine diphosphate (ADP) as platelet aggregation inducers. The screening results for methanolic extract of Allium species showed that the maximum effect of anti-platelet aggregation was related to A. atroviolaceum. This extract inhibited the in-vitro platelet aggregation induced by AA and ADP with IC50 values of 0.4881 (0.4826-0.4937) mg/ml and 0.4945 (0.4137-0.5911) mg/ml respectively. These results support the hypothesis that the dietary intake of Allium could be beneficial for prevention of cardiovascular diseases.