2.2. Mangifera indica L Mangifera indica L. (Anacardiaceae) fruits, commonly known as “mango”, are widely used in the tropical and subtropical regions. In folk medicine of Africa and India, stem bark- and leaves-based preparations are considered as useful tools for the treatment of several diseases, including gastrointestinal, SNC and cardiovascular pathologies, in particular hypertension (Burkill et al., 1985; Eridiweera et al., 2017; Shah et al., 2010). Mango leaves extracts contain an essential oil, sugars, xanthones, including mangiferin, gallates, gallotannins, ellagitannins, benzophenones and flavonoids, the most important of which is quercetin-3-Osophoroside (quercetin-3-O-α- glucopyranosyl-(1 → 2)-β- glucopyranoside) (Qudsia and Arshad, 2009). A M. indica stem bark water extract reverted both noradrenaline- and thromboxane A2 (TP) analogue U46619-induced contraction in rat mesenteric resistance arteries, suggesting the ability of the extract to act as a non-competitive antagonist of TP receptors (Beltran et al., 2004). Further mechanisms that may contribute consist in the extract ability to inhibit the expression of different inflammatory mediators such as leukotriene B4 and prostaglandin E2 production in calcium ionophore and lipopolysaccharide-stimulated macrophages, respectively (Delgado Hernandez et al., 2001). In addition, a M. indica leaves dichloromethanic fraction exerts an ACE-inhibitory activity similar to captopril either in vitro and in vivo, suggesting flavonoids as main contributors to this activity (Ronchi et al., 2015). Mangiferin is the constituent of mango individually investigated for its antihypertensive effects (Fig. 2). It alleviates hypertension induced by hyperuricemia via increasing NO release and improving endothelial function (Yang et al., 2018) and it has been found to exert anti-hepatosteatotic effects in fructose-fed spontaneously hypertensive rats (Xing et al., 2014). However, the demonstrated inhibitory effect of mango extracts on vasoconstrictor responses would be mediated by other constituents (Beltran et al., 2004), reasonably the many flavonoids and isoflavonoids because mangiferin itself has little effect on blood pressure (Yao et al., 2017).

Published as part of Micucci, M., Bolchi, C., Budriesi, R., Cevenini, M., Maroni, L., Capozza, S., Chiarini, A., Pallavicini, M. & Angeletti, A., 2020, Antihypertensive phytocomplexes of proven efficacy and well-established use: Mode of action and individual characterization of the active constituents, pp. 1-19 in Phytochemistry (112222) (112222) 170 on page 4, DOI: 10.1016/j.phytochem.2019.112222, http://zenodo.org/record/8292998