Hassan Esmaeili - Department of heart, School of Medicine, Gorgan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran
Zahra Hafezimoghadam - Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
Mansour Esmailidehaj - Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
Mohammad Ebrahim Rezvani - Department of physiology, school of medicine, Yazd university of medical sciences

Objective: Previous studies reported that asafetida from Ferula assa-foetida Linn. species and its essential oil (AEO) have antioxidant effects. In the present study, the effect of AEO was evaluated on ischemic-reperfusion injury in isolated rat hearts. Materials and Methods: Forty-eight male Wistar rats were divided into 6 groups: 1) control group, 2) vehicle group, 3-5) AEO groups and, 6) carvedilol group. In the control group, hearts were only subjected to 30-min global ischemia followed by 120-min reperfusion. Hearts in other groups were perfused with vehicle (Tween 0.1%), AEO (0.125, 0.25 or 0.50 µL/g heart) or carvedilol (10 µM) for 5 min immediately before the induction of ischemia. Results: Compared to the control group, myocardial dysfunction was significantly more severe only in group 5 in which a significant increase in left ventricular end diastolic pressure and a significant decrease in left ventricular developed pressure and ±dp/dt. Also, the activities of lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase as the markers of myocardial injury were significantly higher only in group 5 compared to control group. The size of infarct and the incidence of irreversible fibrillation did not show any significant differences between the control group and groups 3-5. Conclusion: These results showed that perfusion of isolated rat hearts with AEO 0.5 µL/g heart, but not at lower concentrations, might worsen myocardial ischemic-reperfusion injury.

Asafoetida, Heart, Essential oil, Ischemic-reperfusion injury