Abstract
Backgroud:
Table olives are a food with a high content of bioactive compounds such as oleic acid, polyphenols and pentacyclic triterpenes with cardioprotective properties. Here, we investigate the effect of the intake of table olives on blood pressure (BP) and body weight in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and their normotensive controls (WKY). Arbequina table olives (3.85 g kg-1 ) were administered by gavage to SHR and WKY rats in short-term (1-day) and long-term (7-weeks) experiments. BP was measured by the tail-cuff method and polyphenols and triterpenes in olives and plasma by LC-MS.
Results:
Administration of Arbequina to WKY rats did not exert any change in BP in none of the experiments. However, in SHR rats the single dose induced a transient reduction in BP of approximately 15 mm Hg, from the 2nd to the 10th h after the administration. In the long-term assay, a similar decrease was established in the 2nd week and was maintained throughout the experiment. Moreover, the daily administration of olives did not affect the body weight when compared with controls neither in WKY nor in SHR rats. The determination of polyphenols and triterpenes in plasma indicated that at the end of the experiment only maslinic acid, oleanolic acid, hydroxytyrosol, and luteolin were found, all of them being compounds with already described capacity to decrease BP.
Conclusion:
The present results suggest that the daily intake of table olives could decrease BP in hypertension without affecting body weight, indicating that table olives could contribute to improving cardiovascular health. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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