Antihypertensive Mechanism of Food for Specified Health Use : \u22Eucommia leaf glycoside\u22 and its clinical application

Eucommia is a native Chinese medical herb. The cortex of eucommia has long been used as an antihypertensive medicine. \u22Eucommia leaf glycoside\u22 is a substance extracted from the leaf. A cooling drink has been prepared from the extracts and named \u27Tochu 120\u27. Eucommia leaf glycoside was listed as a food for specified health use in 1997. Its antihypertensive mechanism is thought to involve an agonistic effect on the parasympathetic system based on results of several animal experiments. A double- blind placebo-controlled clinical study of 103 subjects with either high normal blood pressure (BP) or mild hypertension was conducted by means of both casual BP measurement and 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring. A long-term clinical study was also performed for two years. In these studies, \u27Tochu 120\u27 was found to have mild antihypertensive effects and neither side effects nor adverse effects was observed in either clinical study. These results suggest that \u27Tochu 120\u27, a food for specified health use, is useful for non-pharmacological treatment of mildly hypertensive subjects including those who have high normal BP