Hypotensive effects of 9-o-ethyl lycorenine-HCl

In anesthetized rat, cats and dogs, intravenous injection of 9-o-ethyllycorenine-HCl 1-20 mg/kg reduced the blood pressure by 30-80 mmHg, the depressor effect lasting more than 2 hours. In normotensive rats this compound (50-100 mg/kg daily by gavage) lowered arterial blood pressure more than reserpine(1 mg/kg daily) did. In two-kidney Goldblatt hypertensive rats gavage of this agent 20-50 mg/kg daily also lowered blood pressure significantly. Intravenous administrations of 3-10 mg/kg to hypertensive dogs produced some hypotensive effect too. The mechanism of this hypotensive action appears to be peripheral in nature. The actue oral an iv LD50 in mice were 765±31 and 106±4 mg/kg, respectively. It did not affect the growth of the weaned mice fed daily with 200 mg/kg for 4 weeks. In 4 healthy dogs a single iv injection of 50-60 mg/kg did not yield abnormal changes in the blood count, blood BUN and ECG, except that 1 dog appeared momentary elevation of SGPT which returned to normal level 6 days after withdrawal of the drug.