Abstract

In many cultures around the world, pulp of unripe plantains, or Musa paradisiaca, is used in folk medicine to cure liver, kidney, and cardiovascular diseases as well as obesity, anemia, and diabetes. In order to determine the electrocardiographic characteristics of Musa paradisiaca's aqueous extract in isoprenaline-induced myocardial infarction in Wistar rats, this study was conducted. About 300 g of the powdered sample of unripe Musa paradisiaca was soaked in 100 ml of water for about 24 hours. The mixture was filtered and condensed to paste and then used. Thirty-five Wistar rats in all were randomly divided into seven groups, each with five rats, and allowed to acclimatize for one week. The rats were divided into four groups: treatments, conventional drug (positive) control, model (negative) control, and normal control. In the model (negative) control, testing, and conventional drug (positive) control, myocardial infarction was induced by administering isoprenaline (85 mg/kg) subcutaneously (s.c.) for two days in a row, on days 15 and 16, 24 hours apart. Atenolol and extract were used to treat the positive control and the tests, respectively. Changes in electrocardiographic parameters were assessed in accordance with established procedure. The findings showed that the PR and QT intervals, P-wave amplitude and duration, R-wave amplitude, T-wave amplitude and ST-segment, were all significantly increased with induction of myocardial infarction. The ECG P-wave amplitude and duration, R-wave amplitude, T-wave amplitude, ST-segment, PR, and QT intervals were all statistically significantly reduced after treatment with aqueous extract of MP at doses of 200 mg, 400 mg, 800 mg, and 1600 mg/kg body weight. The aqueous extract of Musa paradisiaca was able to restore the abnormal ECGs generated by isoprenaline-induced myocardial infarction to sinus rhythm, which is indicative of ECGs with normal myocardial architecture.

Keywords: Musa paradisiaca, Myocardial infarction, ECG changes.