HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (2) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Páez, X. Articles by Hernández, L. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Páez, X. Articles by Hernández, L. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Topical Hemostatic Effect of a Common Ornamental Plant, the Geraniaceae Pelargonium zonale

From Laboratory of Behavioral Physiology, School of Medicine, Universidad de los Andes, Venezuela.

Geranium has been traditionally used as a local hemostatic medicine in some Andean regions, but this effect has not been tested in controlled experiments. In the present report, the leaves of a geraniaceae (Pelargonium zonale) were tested on a bleeding rat model. The bleeding time was 50% shorter in the geranium leaf juice treatment group (18.10 ± 2.03 min) and 80% shorter in the geranium crushed-leaf group (7.10 ± 0.88 min) than in the control (nontreatment) group (37.6 ± 3.04 min), p< 0.0001. Bleeding time with guava (Psidium guajava) crushed leaves (39.90 ± 1.54 min) was not different from the control group. A proved hemostatic agent, gelatin sponge, had a similar effect as geranium juice (16.7 ± 3.32 min) in the same animal model. A buffer solution at pH 3 (the same pH as the geranium leaf extract) did not have any hemostatic effect, and the bleeding time (39.3 ± 2.71 min) was not different from the control group. The dilution 1:4 geranium leaf juice at pH 3 (25.6 ± 3.08 min) or pH 5 (28.8 ± 3.98 min) still had a statistically significant hemostatic effect. The results confirm the hemostatic effect of P. zonale leaves and show that it is similar (geranium leaf juice) or better (crushed geranium leaves) than the hemostatic effect of a commercial hemostatic sponge. It seems that the hemostasis caused by P. zonale extract leaves is not due to its low pH. The potential benefits as a new, inexpensive, safe, and easily available natural topical hemostatic agent are discussed.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?