Chicken soup can help fight high blood pressure
14 Oct 2008, 1534 Hrs

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Washington, October 14 Chicken soup, which has been used for years as an effective home remedy to deal with the common cold, can also help fight high blood pressure, researchers in Japan have learnt.

Study leader Ai Saiga, a researcher from Nippon Meat Packers, says that chicken breast contains collagen proteins with effects similar to ACE inhibitors, mainstay medications for treating high blood pressure.

The researcher concedes that chicken breast contains such small amounts of the proteins that it cannot be used to develop food and medical products for high blood pressure.

Saiga, however, insists that chicken soup, also known as "Grandma's Penicillin", appear to be a great source of collagen proteins.

During the study, the researchers extracted collagen from chicken legs and tested its ability to act as an ACE inhibitor in the laboratory studies.

They identified four different proteins in the collagen mixture with high ACE-inhibitory activity.

The proteins were then administered to rats used to model human high blood pressure, which produced a significant and prolonged decrease in blood pressure, according to the researchers.

An article on the study has been published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. (ANI)