An-Najah Staff

The herb Teucrium polium L.  (familyLabiatae) grows wild on both the hill sand the plains of the West Bank and is considered acommonplant in the country (Plitmann et al. , 1982) . The herb has also been reported to be present in Morocco (Savageand Vindt , 1965 1   , Italy (Puxeddu, 1925), Southern France  (Peuch, 1970) and Syria (Post,1933). Some of its chemical components have been identified and include alkanes, picropoline and other diterpenoids (Breiskorn and Pfeuffer, 1967; Chiglione et al., 1976). Traditionally the local Palestinian population has used hot water leaf extracts of T.polium forcenturies as a treatment for intestinal and cardiac disorders. The treatment is usually prescribed by the local Arab “physician” along side other form of treatments. Friedman et al. (1986) have reported that.  T. polium is a traditional medicinal plant used by the Bedouins in the south of the country. Therefore, it was decided to study the effect of a boiled extract of this shrub on both the contractions of isolated rabbit ileum and the arterial blood pressure of the anesthetized rat.