Phytochemical Compounds and Protection from Cardiovascular Diseases: A State of the Art

Table 1

Preclinical effects of vegetable compounds.

Vegetable	Preclinical effects	Reference
Resveratrol	(i) Upregulates the antioxidant system and reduces ROS production	[14, 15]
	(ii) Inhibits vascular inflammation and prevents platelet activation	[16–22]
	(iii) Lowers BP in animals with either diabetes or metabolic syndrome	[33]
	(iv) Inhibits very early stages of atherosclerosis	[41, 42]
	(v) Reduces lipid accumulation by inhibiting lipogenesis, increasing apoptosis, and promoting lipolysis	[55–57]
	(vi) Protects against ischemic heart disease	[72]
	(vii) Protects cardiac tissue from cell death though apoptosis and autophagy	[74, 75]
	(viii) Potentiates regeneration of infarcted myocardium	[76, 77]
	(ix) Prevents cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction	[83]
	(x) Promotes angiogenesis in cerebral ECs and prevents impairment of eNOS-dependent vasorelaxation of cerebral arterioles	[93, 94]
	(xi) Protects from doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity	[100–102]
	(xii) Antiarrhythmic effects	[103]
Brassica oleracea	(i) Induces expression of detoxification enzymes (ARE targets)	[114]
	(ii) Lowers ox-LDL blood levels	[119]
	(iii) Decreases oxidative stress and BP levels in pregnant female SHRSP	[121]
	(iv) Promotes optimal platelet function and antithrombotic effects	[122]
	(v) Acts on different types of cells involved in atherosclerosis development	[123]
	(vi) Regulates cholesterol distribution	[126]
	(vii) Protects from myocardial oxidative damage and cell death in ischemia-reperfusion rat models	[106, 128]
	(viii) Nephroprotective effects	[129]
Curcumin	(i) Protective role on endothelium by inducing HO-1	[147]
	(ii) Antiproliferative and antiapoptotic effects on VSMCs, attenuating neointima formation	[149–151]
	(iii) Hypolipidemic effect and protection from aortic fatty streak development	[153, 154]
	(iv) Reduces collagen synthesis and fibrosis and improves left ventricular end-diastolic volume, stroke volume, and ejection fraction	[156]
	(v) Reduces MI size	[137]
	(vi) Protects from adriamycin-induced cardiotoxicity	[159]
	(vii) Protects from cerebral ischemic insult	[138, 139]
Berberine	(i) Improves the proliferative ability of EPCs	[180]
	(ii) Induces endothelial-dependent vasorelaxation and enhances endothelium-independent VSMC dilatation	[181]
	(iii) Inhibits VSMC proliferation and migration and reduces neointima formation	[182]
	(iv) Lipid-lowering properties	[185]
	(v) Positive inotropic, antiarrhythmic, and vasodilator properties	[188, 189]
	(vi) Antihypertensive effects in SHR	[195]
	(vii) Prevents cardiac hypertrophy and attenuates cardiomyocyte apoptosis	[193]
	(viii) Attenuates adverse left ventricular remodeling and preserves left ventricular systolic function in rat model of MI	[196]

ROS: reactive oxygen species; BP: blood pressure; eNOS: endothelial nitric oxide sinthase; ARE: Antioxidant Response Elements; ox-LDL: oxidized low-density lipoprotein; SHRSP: stroke prone spontaneously hypertensive rats; HO-1: heme oxygenase-1; ECs: endothelial cells; VSMC: vascular smooth muscular cells; MI: myocardial infarction; EPCs: endothelial progenitor cells.