Tambulin is a major active compound of a methanolic extract of fruits of Zanthoxylum armatum DC causing endothelium-independent relaxations in porcine coronary artery rings via the cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP relaxing pathways.

Zanthoxylum armatum DC (Z. armatum), belonging to Rutaceae family, has been traditionally used for the treatment of various diseases such as hypertension, abdominal pain, headache, fever, high altitude sickness, diarrhea, dysentery, and as a tonic, condiment, and an anthelmintic treatment.The present study aims to evaluate the vasorelaxant effect of a methanolic extract of the fruits of Z. armatum, isolate the active components and characterize the underlying mechanism.A methanolic extract of fruits of Z. armatum was prepared and its vasorelaxant effect was studied using porcine coronary artery rings. Thereafter, the methanolic extract was analyzed, and a major compound was isolated and its structure elucidated (tambulin). Different pharmacological tools were used to characterize the vasorelaxant effect of tambulin.

The methanolic extract and the isolated tambulin caused similar endothelium-independent relaxations of porcine coronary artery rings with and without endothelium indicating a direct relaxing effect at the vascular smooth muscle. Tambulin did not affect the relaxation curves to the endothelium-dependent vasodilators, bradykinin and the calcium ionophore A23187 in rings with endothelium. Tambulin (1 µM) slightly but significantly shifted leftwards the concentration-relaxation curve to the endothelium-independent vasodilators, sodium nitroprusside (SNP), forskolin (FC) and isoproterenol but not those to soluble guanylyl cyclase activators (YC-1 and BAY 41-2272) and K⁺ channel openers (levcromakalim and 1-EBIO). Pretreatment with tambulin inhibited, in a concentration-dependent manner, contractions to KCl, serotonin (5-HT), CaCl₂ and U46619 in coronary artery rings without endothelium. Both the protein kinase A (H-89, 10 µM) and the protein kinase G (Rp-8-br-cyclic GMPS, 30 µM) inhibitors significantly reduced relaxations to tambulin in coronary artery rings without endothelium.

The present findings indicate that tambulin isolated from Z. armatum (fruits) is a major active principle inducing vasorelaxation through a direct effect at the vascular smooth muscle and involving both the cyclic AMP and/or cyclic GMP relaxing pathways.