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P-ISSN: 2349-8528, E-ISSN: 2321-4902   |   Impact Factor: GIF: 0.565

Vol. 6, Special Issue 4 (2018)

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) as an emerging functional food for hypertension


Author(s): Nandana Kumari and Rita Singh Raghuvanshi

Abstract: Non communicable diseases (NCDs) are now dominant sources of mortality around the globe. Among NCDs, hypertension is the most widely prevalent non-communicable disease in developing countries including India. These facts have necessitated the need of functional foods which can be used to combat high prevalence of hypertension. In Uttarakhand state, Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is a traditional and underutilized crop which is very nutritious with immense health benefits. Buckwheat leaves are consumed by local hill people but its grains are less used as food, mainly during religious fast only. Therefore, a study was conducted with the objective to see the effect of buckwheat on blood pressure of hypertensive subjects at Pantnagar of Uttrakhand state. Forty five hypertensive subjects selected randomly and divided into three groups, as control, placebo and experimental group, each group composed of 15 subjects. After the collection of baseline information, dietary intervention programme was launched with the help of buckwheat based experiment food continuous for 90 days. For this purpose, local variety of buckwheat grains purchased from nearby villages of Gwaldum district. Buckwheat grains was made into flour and experiment food was developed in the form of 100 g (each packet)of flour mix (consisted of whole wheat flour and whole buckwheat grain flour in 1:1 ratio).Blood pressure was measured before and after the dietary intervention programme. After the dietary intervention programme, the per cent change in systolic pressure were 10.07 (+), 4.30 (+) and 6.76 (-) and the per cent change in diastolic pressure were 3.85(+), 4.17(+) and 7.47(-) in the hypertensive subjects of control, placebo and experimental group respectively. The change found in the systolic and diastolic blood pressure in the subjects of control and placebo group was undesirable whereas of experimental group, the change was desirable and statistically significant (p0.05) also. It was very clear that the regular consumption of buckwheat based experiment food lead to significant fall in blood pressure in experimental group which was the impact of buckwheat because there were no change in all other influencing factors like diet pattern, medicine use and life style etc in all hypertensive subjects. So, it can be concluded that buckwheat had blood pressure lowering effect. Therefore, various buckwheat based health foods could be developed as functional foods which would be beneficial for hypertensive subjects.

Pages: 20-24  |  998 Views  102 Downloads

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How to cite this article:
Nandana Kumari and Rita Singh Raghuvanshi. Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) as an emerging functional food for hypertension. International Journal of Chemical Studies. 2018; 6(4): 20-24.
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