Eggplant, the Cardio-Protective Functional Veggie, Scientists Suggest

By Kyle J. Norton

Scientists may have found a whole fruit or vegetable with a potential to treat cardiovascular disease with no side effects, some studies found.

Cardiovascular disease is a class of conditions associated with heart and blood vessels. Anything that affects the normal heart and blood vessel functionings is considered risk factors of the disease, including heart's muscle, valves or rhythm, and blockage of blood vessels.

According to the statistics, in the US, approximately, 610,000 people die of heart disease every year that's 1 in every 4 deaths. The disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women.

The causes of cardiovascular diseases are associated with the location that affects the functioning of the heart and blood vessels, including atherosclerosis is caused by the blockade of the blood vessel due to the accumulation of plaques in the arteries and arrhythmias caused by abnormal heart rhythms.

Epidemiological studies strongly suggested that most common cardiovascular disease that affects most of the heart disease patients are coronary artery disease (CAD).

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common form of heart disease caused by one or more of the coronary arteries become narrow or blocked.

Some researchers suggested that the widespread of the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD) in the Western world probably is a result of the promotion of the Western diet over the last few decades.

The diet high in bad cholesterol, salts and sugar and carcinogens associated with the accumulation of plaques on the arteries have been found to be a culprit of the onset of coronary artery disease in many studies.

Dr. Oikonomou E, the lead author in the joint study led by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in the concerns of CAD widespread in the Western world launched an investigation to examine the independent predictive value of an unhealthy diet on the severity of coronary artery disease (CAD).

In the total of 188 symptomatic stable patients with CAD. Patients were categorized as having severe CAD or nonsevere CAD by coronary angiography.

Among several demographics and clinical characteristics, all patients were tested using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire.

By analysing the 8 principal components in the 8 distinct dietary patterns found in the returned questionnaire, researchers found that The Western dietary pattern (increased intake of fat, red meat, and carbohydrates and minimal consumption of fruits and green leafy vegetables) was predictive of severe CAD (area under the curve: 0.73, 95% confidence intervals: 0.64-0.83, P < .001).

These results not only suggested that the Western not only causes the onset of the disease but also increased the risk of severity of coronary artery lesions in patients with stable CAD.

The doctors in the study wrote the final report, "the findings highlight the role of dietary patterns when estimating cardiovascular risk for the management of patients with CAD".

Eggplant is a species of S. melongena, belonging to the family Solanaceae and native to India.

The plant has been cultivated in southern and eastern Asia since prehistory. It is famous for its deep purple and the best eggplant can be found from August through October when it is in season.

The chemical constituents of eggplant include sterols (i.e. typical plant sterols, androstane, pregnane and cholestane derivatives, steroidal alkaloids and sapogenins), phytosterols, triterpenes, δ-amyrin, Chlorogenic acid, Nasunin, and other Polyphenolic compounds.

In the finding, a natural compound with the efficacy for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease with no side effects, researchers at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine examines the role of raw and grilled eggplants on cardioprotection using an isolated perfusion heart model.

The animals were fed freeze-dried products of either raw or grilled eggplants for 30 days. After 30 days, isolated working hearts were subjected to 30 min ischemia followed by 2 h of reperfusion.

The medical assays suggested eggplants process potent cardioprotective compounds judging by their ability to increase left ventricular function, and reduce myocardial infarct size and cardiomyocyte apoptosis.

Interestingly, researchers found no difference in cardioprotective ability between the raw and grilled products.

Based on the antioxidant vitamins classification, researchers showed that vitamin A, vitamin C, and β-carotene, were lower and some of the polyphenolic components, especially nasunin content, were higher in grilled eggplants, These result indicated that there must be some other ingredient processed by both grill and raw eggplants that exert cardiovascular diseases not found in this study.

Moreover, in the study to analyze total phenolics and antioxidant capacity in the indigenous vegetables for cardioprotective effect researchers at the Tuskegee University conducted a group analysis including collard greens, mustard greens, kale, okra, green onion, butter beans, butter peas, purple hull peas, rutabagas, and eggplant.

At a concentration of 10.0 mg dried vegetable equivalent/ml, the extract of these vegetables exerted a significant antioxidant activity by reducing 13.2-88.5% DPPH(•) radical in 30 min.

The Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity. (ORAC) value ranged from 2.5 to 100.7 µmoles of Trolox equivalents per gram of dried sample.

The antioxidant capacity of the vegetable samples was highly related to their total phenolic content.

The evidence suggested these indigenous vegetables are good sources of the phenolic compounds, which might provide anti-oxidative protection against free radicals in inducing chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease.

Taken altogether, eggplant processed abundantly bioactive antioxidants may be considered a functional vegetable for the prevention and an adjunct therapy combined with the primary medicine for the treatment of cardiovascular disease without inducing any adverse effects

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.
References
(1) Cardioprotective properties of raw and cooked eggplant (Solanum melongena L) by Das S1, Raychaudhuri U, Falchi M, Bertelli A, Braga PC, Das DK. (PubMed)
(2) Total phenolics and antioxidant capacity of indigenous vegetables in the southeast United States: Alabama Collaboration for CardiovascularEquality Project by Huang Z1, Wang B, Eaves DH, Shikany JM, Pace RD. (PubMed)
(3) Western Dietary Pattern Is Associated With Severe Coronary Artery Disease by Oikonomou E1, Psaltopoulou T2, Georgiopoulos G1, Siasos G1,3, Kokkou E1, Antonopoulos A1, Vogiatzi G1, Tsalamandris S1, Gennimata V1, Papanikolaou A1, Tousoulis D. (PubMed)