The purpose of this study is to measure the changes of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and blood pressure (BP) of Cortex Acanthopanacis in rats, and to determine the effect of Cortex Acanthopanacis on phenylephrine (PE) induced contraction of isolated rat thoracic aorta. The measurement was continually monitored by laser-doppler flowmeter (Transonic Instrument, USA) and pressure transducer (Grass, USA) in anesthetized adult Sprague-Dawley rats through the data acquisition system composed of MacLab and Macintosh computer. Contractile force was measured with force displacement transducer under 1.5 g loading tension. The result of this experiment was as following; 1. Cortex Acanthopanacis did not effect the changes of rCBF and blood pressure significantly. 2. Contractions evoked by phenylephrine were decreased significantly by Cortex Acanthopanacis 3. L-NNA, ODQ, atropine and indomethacin significantly altered the relaxation of Cortex Acanthopanacis. 4. Propranolol did not change the relaxation of Cortex Acanthopanacis. These results indicate that Cortex Acanthopanacis did not change the rCBF and BP, but Cortex Acanthopanacis can relax PE induced contraction of isolated rat thoracic aorta and that this increasing contraction related to endothelium and various mechanism.

The purpose of this study is to measure the changes of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and blood pressure (BP) in rats, following the intravenous injection of Catalpa Ovata Water Extract (COWE). The measurement was continually monitored by laser-doppler flowmeter (Transonic Instrument, USA) and pressure tranducer(Grass, USA) in anesthetized adult Sprague-Dawley rats through the data acquisition system composed of MacLab and Macintosh computer. The result of this experiment was as following : COWE increased the changes of rCBF and BP significantly. After pretreatment with propranolol and indomethacin, the changes of rCBF were inhibited significantly, but not by L-NNA and methylene blue. Also, after pretreatment with propranolol, the changes of BP were inhibited significantly, but not by L-NNA, methylene blue and indomethacin. According to above result, it is considered that Catalpa Ovata increased the rCBF and BP, related to adrenergic β-receptor.