穿心蓮，被公認為「苦之王」，為一種草本植物。在東南亞、印度、泰國和馬來西亞廣泛用於治療咽喉痛、流感和上呼吸道感染。這種植物含有藥理學重要成份穿心蓮內酯（andrographolide）。穿心蓮內酯有廣泛的藥理活性如消炎、抗菌、抗腫瘤、抗糖尿病、抗愛滋病、抗病毒。目前心血管疾病仍然是全世界死亡的主要原因。因為炎症和血管壁的內皮功能受損導致動脈粥樣硬化病變形成，進而導致心肌梗塞和中風。由於人口老化，使得年齡和代謝性疾病風險因素增加，心臟衰竭發生率增加，因此對於這些血管和心臟疾病的治療仍然是一項挑戰。本篇旨在從現有文獻提供關於穿心蓮和其成份穿心蓮內酯做為心血管疾病治療的未來發展。

Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f) Nees, commonly recognized as ‘king of bitters’, is an herbaceous plant of the Family of Acanthaceae used extensively in Southeast Asia, India, Thailand and Malaysia for the treatment of sore throat, flu and upper respiratory tract infections. This plant contains the pharmacologically important chemical constituent andrographolide. Andrographolide has been offered wide variety of pharmacological activities such as anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antitumor, antidiabetic, anti-HIV, anti-feedant, and antivirus. Cardiovascular diseases are still the leading cause of death worldwide. Impaired endothelial function followed by inflammation of the vessel wall leads to atherosclerotic lesion formation that causes myocardial infarction and stroke. Due to the rising age of the population, the incidence of heart failure is further increasing. Thus, the increase in risk factor burden by age and metabolic diseases expands the incidence for vascular and cardiac diseases and provides a challenge for developing efficient treatments. Therefore, this review aimed to provide the evidence-based information from the existing literature about the plant Andrographis paniculata and its compound andrographolide for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.