To reduce the vascular contracting effect of the cardiac glycoside, proscillaridin (1), all kinds of its nitrates were prepared by utilizing effectively an isopropylidene function as a protective group. The pharmacological activities of proscillaridin nitrates were evaluated by the use of isolated guinea-pig papillary muscle preparations and Na+, K+-adenosine triphosphatase preparations from the dog kidney. Furthermore, the effect for smooth muscle using the helical strips isolated from 13-week old spontaneously hypertensive rat was examined. The positive inotropic effects and Na+, K+-adenosine triphosphatase inhibition activities of mononitrates (6, 9, 15) and dinitrates (3, 4, 5) were a little less potent than 1, but those of trinitrate (2) were much reduced. Every nitrate did not exhibited a vascular contracting effect but a relaxing effect. Among them, the vascular relaxing effects of 2', 3'-dinitrate (3) and 2', 4'-dinitrate (4) were more potent than those of the other nitrates.
