The aim of the present study was to investigate different yam treatments, including powdered-yamproducts (PYP) and liquid-yam-products (LYP), with respect to spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) blood pressure. PYP included alcohol-insoluble-solids of yam tuber, hot-air-drying (HAD) of yam tuber slices, steamcooked once or twice followed by HAD which were subsequently powdered. LYP included water extracts of yam tuber (WEY) heated at 90 C (WEY90H) or 95 C for 10 min (WEY95H), and then stored at 4 C for different numbers of day. PYP, WEY, and WEYH were found effectively to reduce the blood pressure of SHR and should be beneficial in food processing in the development of functional foods for blood pressure regulation.Key words: antihypertensive activity; blood pressure; spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR); yam Several classes of pharmacological agents are used in the treatment of hypertension. One class of anti-hypertensive drugs, known as angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, is associated with a low rate of adverse side-effects, and it is the preferred class of antihypertensive agents for treating patients with concurrent secondary diseases.1) Several food-derived peptides have been reported to inhibit ACE, 2) includinglactalbumin and -lactoglobulin, 3,4) casein, 5,6) and zein, 7,8) all of which are hydrolyzed by pepsin, trypsin, or chymotrypsin. Fujita et al. 9) found that the octapeptides of FFGRCVSP (IC 50 = 0.4 mM) and ERKIKVYL (IC 50 = 1.2 mM) are potent ACE inhibitors, but none of them was effective in animal models to reduce the blood pressure of SHRs. Sato et al. 10) pointed out that three dipeptides, AW (IC 50 = 18.8 mM), VW (IC 50 = 3.3 mM), and LW (IC 50 = 23.6 mM), were potential ACE inhibitory peptides, but, none of them were able to reduce the blood pressure of SHRs in animal models effectively.We have reported that the purified storage protein, dioscorin, from yam tubers exhibited ACE inhibitory activity, 11) antihypertensive effects on SHRs, 12) antioxidant activity, 13,14) and immunomodulatory activity. 15)The results of our recent feeding trial revealed that instant food containing lyophilized yam powders had regulating effects on human blood pressure. 16) Dried slices of yam tuber are frequently used as Chinese herbal medicines, and the fresh tuber is also a staple food in West Africa, South Asia, the Caribbean, and Taiwan. In the present study, different yam products, powdered yam products (PYP) and liquid yam products (LYP), were prepared to examine their health benefits and to investigate the antihypertensive activity they might have on SHR. It was found that PYP and LYP had antihypertensive activities toward SHRs. This might be useful information for food processing in the development of functional foods for blood-pressure regulation. Materials and MethodsMaterials. DE-52 anion exchange resin was from Whatman (Florham Park, NJ); bovine serum albumin, Coomassie Brilliant Blue R-250, Tris-HCl, and other chemicals and reagents were from Sigma Chemical (St. Louis, MO).Purificati...

Helicobacter pylori is a major risk factor for gastritis, gastric ulcers and gastric cancer. Traditional therapy with proton pump inhibitor and antibiotics is regarded as optimal for H. pylori eradication whereas, the eradication rate is unsatisfactory. Studies have reported that cranberry may inhibit H. pylori adhesion to the human gastric mucus but lack of other berry extracts have been evaluated in clinical study. Thus, a 9-week add-on randomised controlled trial was conducted to explore the impact of blueberry and grape seed extract (BGE) combinations traditional therapy for H. pylori eradication. In results, we found that there was no significant difference of eradication rate between the berry extract group and placebo group in the intention-to-treat analysis and in the per-protocol analysis (94.64% versus 84.62%, p = 0.085). Diarrhoea, constipation and epigastric pain were observed increasing during ingestion of the berry extract in some cases. In conclusion, this study indicated that no significant difference existed between the BGE extract group and placebo group in eradication rate under triple therapy.