The study, published in the journal Nutrients, involved 81 participants suffering from stage 1 hypertension, which is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease, including stroke and heart failure, who were already on medication to reduce blood pressure.
The participants were given 250mg of black garlic extract over 12 weeks, with no changes to their medication. This helped control their levels of blood pressure, both systolic and diastolic at 1.8 mmHg and 1.5 mmHg respectively. For context, a reduction in blood pressure by 2 mmHG can reduce the risk of a stroke by 10% in middle age.
Black garlic origins
Black garlic comes to be through an aging process, being born of white garlic. “Black garlic is not grown or cultivated, black garlic is obtained through different aging methods from white garlic,” Cristian Conde Garrido, head of marketing at Pharmactive Biotech Products, who makes the aged black garlic extract, told FoodNavigator.
“That is, white garlic is subjected to a transformation process, in Pharmactive’s case it is through a unique aging process called ABG Cool-Tech that uses only water as a solvent and very little electrical energy.”
How it works
After blood serum tests the researchers discovered that black garlic extract can boost the release of nitric oxide and increase the body’s antioxidant capacity.
Nitric oxide is a natural vasorelaxant, meaning that it widens blood vessels. The body produces it to increase blood flow, maintain cardiovascular function, and most importantly, improve blood pressure.
Nitric oxide is also a cellular antioxidant, which helps mitigate oxidative stress and the negative affects it has on blood vessels and the cardiovascular system.
According to Alberto Espinel, Open Innovation Director of Pharmactive, reducing the angiotensin converting enzyme activity is key to reducing blood pressure. This converts angiotensin I into angiotensin II, the main role of which, according to the journal Circulation, is to constrict blood vessels.
Having it in food
Aged black garlic extract is not just useful for reducing blood pressure, can be incorporated into food to give it flavour. By putting it in dishes, you kill two birds with one stone, creating a meal that has an extra taste and a positive affect on blood pressure.
“This extract is suitable for a large number of food matrices and supplements,” Garrido told us, “and thanks to its organoleptic properties, which are very different when compared to white garlic, such as its pleasant flavour with sweet notes, make it easy to formulate with it.”
Pharmactive are capable of upscaling aged black garlic extract as well. “In terms of manufacturing capacity, this would not be a problem since we have the space and the economic and personnel resources to expand the manufacturing of this production line, in fact nowadays Pharmactive already has a good manufacturing capacity for ABG10+ as it is already in the market, with a good presence in more than 30 different countries.”
Sourced From: Nutrients
‘Antihypertensive Effects of an Optimized Aged Garlic Extract in Subjects with Grade I Hypertension and Antihypertensive Drug Therapy: A Randomized, Triple-Blind Controlled Trial’
Published on: 23 August 2023
Doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15173691
Authors: J. C. E. Serrano, E. Castro-Boqué, A. García-Carrasco, M. I. Morán-Valero, D. González-Hedström, M. Bermúdez-López, J. Manuel Valdivielso, A. E. Espinel and M. Portero-Otín
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