The Tohoku study adds antihypertensive activity to the picture, along with a host of other biochemical markers that track blood glucose (implicated in diabetes), lipid profile, kidney function and the harmful effects of free radicals.
For example, high levels of a marker called 8-OHdG indicate biological stress and genetic damage due to oxygen-based free radicals. The researchers found that rice bran, which contains various forms of the antioxidant Vitamin E, markedly lowered the rats?levels of the peptide 8-OHdG.
“Oxidative stress plays an important role in the initiation and progression of cardiovascular diseases,?explained lead author Ardiansyah [editor note: name is correct as written, there is no first name], a Ph.D. candidate at the university’s School of Agricultural Science.
He added one more element to the research that is new: using enzymes to clip components of rice bran from its cell walls, rather than extracting a fraction with ethanol. “I think enzymatic treatment will be more suitable for applications if we’d like to use [rice bran as] functional food,?he said.
The researchers?next step is to elucidate the mechanisms by which specific components of rice bran inhibit ACE and lower cholesterol.