INTRODUCTION
The heart is a hollow muscular, cone-shaped organ, lying between the
lungs in a block of tissue called the mediastinum (Khader, 2004). The heart
begins beating some few weeks following conception and beats throughout
life (Khader, 2004). It is also the strongest muscle in the human body and
functions to maintain a constant circulation of blood throughout the body, it
also acts as a pump and its action is composed of a series of events known as
the cardiac cycle. The heart is composes of three layers of tissue which are;
the pericardium, the myocardium and the Endocardium. The heart acts as a
pump which drives blood into and through the arteries, but the right and the
left side of the heart functions separately from one another some of the
diseases associated with the cardiovascular system includes coronary heart
diseases (CHD) which is the most common of heart diseases and it occurs
when the arteries supplying blood to the heart narrow or harden from the
build-up of plaque (Gina, 1996.),Ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular
disease( CeVD),peripheral vascular disease, Heart Failure etc and some of
the pharmacological treatment includes Angiotesin commonly prescribes
includes Benazepril, Captopril, Moexipril, Beta Blockers which includes,
Acebutolol, Betaxolol,etc.
The heart marker enzymes includes creatine kinasse(CK-MB)which is
the enzyme used as the definitive serum marker for the diagnosis or
exclusion of acute myocardial infarction (Andreas,2009).
Troponin 1 Rapid test which is a lateral flow chromatographic
immunoassay for the qualitative detection of cardiac Troponin
1(CTn1)and its complex in human serum or plasma at the level equal or
higher than 1ng/ml. Myoglobin which is also designed for qualitative
determination of myoglobin in human whole blood serum or plasma as
an aid in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction (MI) and myoglobin is
also a low molecular weight cytoplasm protein which is released into the
blood stream when muscle cells are damaged and this protein is released
into the blood stream more rapidly than any other myocardial marker
and elevated levels can be detected as early as one (1) hour after the
onset of AMI(Penttila,2002). Demodium velutinum has been suggested
to have some therapeutic effect in the treatment of cardiovascular
disorder and in the reducing of high cholesterol content in the body.
Demodium Velutinum is one of the few shrubs species that has been
identified as a well adapted to acid tropical soil and a good nutritive
value(Schultze-Kraft, 2002).Every culture has relied on the variety of
natural medicines found in healing plants for the therapeutic properties
(Armstrong,2004).Researchers find that food and their individual
constituents perform similar fashion to modern drugs and sometimes
better without the dreaded side effect. The leaves and young stems are
rich in crude protein and mineral elements and can provide higher levels
of some nutrient (Bakker, 1994). Natural plants have been valuable
sources of mineral agent with proven potential of treating infectious
diseases and with lesser side effects compared to the synthetic drug
agents(Guyton, 2002).Hence potentially useful drugs can often be
recognized from their relative importance and uses in folk medicine.
Extract of Desmodium velutinum stem are used traditionally in some
diseases condition particularly headache and may be a source of a
pharmacological active agent useful in the treatment of aches and
pain(Anowi,2012). This work aimed at investigating any
hypocholesterolemic activity in the N-hexane extract of Desmodium
Velutinum stem