Research Article Effect of Flos carthami Extract and  1 -Adrenergic Antagonists on the Porcine Proximal Ureteral Peristalsis San-Yuan Wu, 1,2 Kee-Ming Man, 1,2,3,4,5 Jui-Lung Shen, 6 Huey-Yi Chen, 2,7 Chiao-Hui Chang, 2 Fuu-Jen Tsai, 2,7 Wen-Tsong Hsieh, 2 Daniel Winardi, 2 Yuan-Ju Lee, 8 Kao-Sung Tsai, 2,7 Yu-Ning Lin, 2 Yung-Hsiang Chen, 2,7 and Wen-Chi Chen 2,7 1 Department of Anesthesiology, Tungs’ Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital, Taichung 435, Taiwan 2 Graduate Institute of Integrated Medicine, Institute of Chinese Medicine, School of Chinese Medicine, Department of Pharmacology, Research Center for Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan 3 Department of Medicinal Botanicals and Health Applications, Da-Yeh University, Changhua 515, Taiwan 4 Department of Life Sciences, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan 5 Graduate Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230032, China 6 Department of Dermatology, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 407, Taiwan 7 Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical Genetics and Pediatrics, Dermatology, Medical Research, and Urology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan 8 Department of Urology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei 100, Taiwan Correspondence should be addressed to Yung-Hsiang Chen; d87a03@ym.edu.tw and Wen-Chi Chen; wgchen@mail.cmu.edu.tw Received 10 March 2014; Revised 8 May 2014; Accepted 8 May 2014; Published 9 July 2014 Academic Editor: Shi-Biao Wu Copyright © 2014 San-Yuan Wu et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been proposed to prevent urolithiasis. In China, Flos carthami (FC, also known as Carthamus tinctorius) (Safower; Chinese name: Hong Hua/紅花) has been used to treat urological diseases for centuries. We previously performed a screening and confrmed the in vivo antilithic efect of FC extract. Here, ex vivo organ bath experiment was further performed to study the efect of FC extract on the inhibition of phenylepinephrine (PE) (10 −4 and 10 −3 M) ureteral peristalsis of porcine ureters with several  1 -adrenergic antagonists (doxazosin, tamsulosin, and terazosin) as experimental controls. Te results showed that doxazosin, tamsulosin, and terazosin dose (approximately 4.5 × 10 −6 − 4.5 × 10 −1 g/mL) dependently inhibited both 10 −4 and 10 −3 M PE-induced ureteral peristalsis. FC extract achieved 6.2% ± 10.1%, 21.8% ± 6.8%, and 24.0% ± 5.6% inhibitions of 10 −4 M PE-induced peristalsis at doses of 5 × 10 3 ,1 × 10 4 , and 2 × 10 4 g/mL, respectively, since FC extract was unable to completely inhibit PE-induced ureteral peristalsis, suggesting the antilithic efect of FC extract is related to mechanisms other than modulation of ureteral peristalsis. 1. Introduction Ureteral stones can obstruct the ureter and cause severe colicky pain as a sequence of hydronephrosis and increased intrarenal pressure [1–3]. Te clinical symptoms of renal colic include acute colicky pain, urinary frequency, dysuria, nausea, and vomiting. As the stone migrates downward from the kidney or upper ureter to the distal ureter, treatment involves measures to relieve pain, encouraging water intake, and administering some medications [4, 5]. Spontaneous expulsion is expected within 4 weeks if the stone is <6 mm in diameter [6]. For situations other than those requiring urgent treatment, such as larger stone size, infection, intractable pain, renal function deterioration, or solitary kidney, many treatments are available to induce spontaneous stone passage. Drugs commonly used to treat colic include nonsteroidal anti-infammatory drugs (NSAIDs), narcotics, antidiuretics, calcium channel blockers, and -blockers. Several clinical trials of highly selective -blockers are promising for improv- ing spontaneous ureteral stone expulsion [7]. However, Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2014, Article ID 437803, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/437803