title: Medicinal plants used for cardiovascular diseases in Navarra and their validation from official sources.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This paper provides significant ethnopharmacological information on plants used to treat cardiovascular diseases in Navarra, Spain.
  
  
  METHODS
  Information was collected using semi-structured ethnobotanical interviews with 667 informants (mean age 72; 55.47% women, 44.53% men) in 265 locations. Official sources such as the European Scientific Cooperative on Phytotherapy (ESCOP), German Commission E, World Health Organization (WHO), European Medicines Agency (EMA), European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur.) and Real Farmacopea Española (RFE) monographs were consulted in order to establish the therapeutic efficacy of the reported uses and to obtain further details about quality and safety aspects. A literature review was carried out on the plants that were most frequently cited and were not the subject of a monograph, using a new tool developed by the University of Navarra, UNIKA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 460 pharmaceutical uses were reported by the informants, belonging to 90 plant species and 39 families, mainly represented by Urticaceae, Rosaceae, Asteraceae, and Equisetaceae. The most frequently used parts of the plants were the aerial parts followed by leaves and flowers. Seventeen out of 90 plants (19%) and 208 out of 460 popular uses (45%) had already been pharmacologically validated in relation to their therapeutic efficacy and safety aspects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The authors propose to validate five species for their use in cardiovascular diseases: Rhamnus alaternus L., Potentilla reptans L., Equisetum telmateia Ehrh., Centaurium erythraea Rafn and Parietaria judaica L.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Navarra, Irunlarrea s/n, 31008 Pamplona, Spain. Electronic address: mcalvo@unav.es.
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Calvo
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Navarra, Irunlarrea s/n, 31008 Pamplona, Spain.
authors.forename: R Y
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Cavero
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002317:Cardiovascular Agents / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*; D003625:Data Collection; D019448:Ethnobotany; D020834:Ethnopharmacology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008519:Medicine, Traditional; D008517:Phytotherapy; D028321:Plant Preparations / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000737:chemistry*; D013030:Spain
chemical_list: D002317:Cardiovascular Agents; D028321:Plant Preparations
keywords: Cardiovascular; Ethnopharmacology; Navarra; Traditional knowledge; Validation from Official sources