In 2017, China published the Catalog of Raw Materials from the Same Source of Medicine and Food, and after literature search in CA, BA, Springer, CNKI and Wipro databases, we found some medicines and food with blood pressure-lowering effect, which are Lysimachia officinalis, Hawthorn, Chrysanthemum, Pueraria lobata, Cassia seed, Oyster, Papaya, Forsythia, Walnut kernel and Kombucha.

Food therapy has the function of regulating the organism, preventing diseases before they occur, and opening up a new way for the prevention and treatment of hypertensive diseases. In this paper, the blood pressure-lowering mechanisms of blood pressure-lowering medicinal and food items and their food

research progress, in order to provide reference for its medicinal food research and application.

Rafflesia

Rafflesia is the dried mature seeds of radish in the family of Cruciferae, containing alkaloids, thioglucosides, isothiocyanates, flavonoids, volatile oils, fatty oils, proteins, polysaccharides and other chemical compositions, of which erucic acid thiocyanate is the active ingredient in lowering blood pressure.

Li Tieyun let spontaneous hypertensive rats take water-soluble alkaloids of Rafflesia, which have the effect of significantly lowering blood pressure, and its antihypertensive effect may activate the nitric oxide-cardio-nitric oxide synthase system, so that the vasodilatation of blood vessels, blood pressure down, and may protect the target organs through antioxidant effects and reduce damage.

Gong Jirong let the patients orally take the capsule containing Lycopodium album for more than 3 weeks, and the total antihypertensive effective rate was 87.5%, which proved that Lycopodium album was an effective antihypertensive drug.

Hawthorn

The chemical composition of hawthorn fruit extract is mainly flavonoids and triterpenoids, which have the effects of lowering blood lipids, promoting myocardial contraction and protecting myocardium, anti-atherosclerosis and lowering blood pressure.

The mechanism of action is to reduce peripheral vascular resistance by regulating endothelium-dependent vasodilatory substances, and to protect hypertension-induced damage to important tissues and organs through antioxidant effects.

Yuan Yuan et al. constructed renal hypertension combined with hyperlipidemia model rats and gavaged hawthorn extract on them, it has stable and long-term lipid regulating effect, meanwhile, it can control the blood pressure not to rise again, and its antihypertensive mechanism is based on the expansion of peripheral blood vessels.

Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum is the flower bud or flower of the genus Aster, family Asteraceae. The main chemical components of Chrysanthemum extract are flavonoids, triterpenoids and volatile oil.

Modern pharmacological studies have shown that Chrysanthemum has significant effects of dilating coronary arteries, diastolic blood vessels, increasing coronary blood flow, lowering blood pressure, antioxidant, improving cardiac vitality, cardiotonic, and anti-arrhythmic effects.

Pueraria Mirifica

The main components of Pueraria Mirifica include isoflavones, puerarin, triterpenoid saponins, alkaloids and other compounds. Its isoflavones contain Puerarin which has the effect of vasodilating, lowering blood pressure, anti-myocardial ischemia and so on.

Sun Yunxiang et al. study confirmed that Puerarin has vasodilator effect; and found that its vasodilator effect in the application of L-nitroarginine and destruction of endothelial cells significantly weakened, suggesting that NO synthesized by vascular endothelial cells may be involved in the vasodilator effect of Puerarin.

Cassia seed

Cassia seed is a legume cassia or small cassia mature dry seeds, its main chemical constituents for anthraquinones, another protein, polysaccharide, and a variety of essential amino acids and trace elements cassia seed extract vasodilator. The effect may be related to the inhibition of receptor manipulation of calcium channel opening, regulation of vascular endothelial cells iNOS and nitric oxide release.

Yu Hairong et al. by giving renal hypertension rats gavage cassia seed anthraquinone glycoside, the results found that this method can significantly reduce the systolic blood pressure of the caudal artery of rats, urinary albumin and β2-microglobulin content, to improve the hypertension-induced renal injury, and its mechanism of action may be related to the inhibition of intracardiac angiotensin Ⅱ, aldosterone and endothelin secretion.

Oyster

Oysters contain amino acids, polysaccharides, B vitamins, taurine, calcium, phosphorus, iron and zinc. Shao Jiangjuan et al. found that oyster has a synergistic effect on the blood pressure lowering of Pueraria lobata, and its mechanism is related to the inhibition of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, improvement of the vascular endothelial function, and the blockade of intracellular calcium ions triggered by a variety of signaling pathways in the aortic smooth muscle cells.

Papaya

Papaya is the fruit of the herbaceous plant of the papaya family, and its composition includes organic acids, flavonoids, papain and polysaccharides. Liu Saisai et al. prepared blood pressure-lowering peptides by hydrolyzing casein with papain. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, also known as hypotensive peptides, are a class of peptides with significant blood pressure-lowering effects.

Forsythia

Forsythia is the dried fruit of Citrus aurantium, with flavonoids, volatile oils, coumarins, polysaccharides and other chemical components.

Chang Wen et al. compared the inhibition of angiotensin converting enzyme by different solvent extracts of Forsythia by HPLC method and found out the active part with the best inhibition effect, and speculated that the hypotensive effect of Forsythia may be mainly related to renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system.

Walnut Kernel

Walnut kernel is the seed kernel of walnut, Walnutaceae, which is rich in nutrients, containing high quality fat, protein, amino acids, carbohydrates, and mineral elements such as phosphorus, calcium, iron, potassium, and vitamins B, C, and E. The nutrients of walnut kernel are also rich in vitamins B, C, and E.

Xu Huijiao et al. defatted walnut meal as raw material for protein extraction, the study of five different proteases on the walnut protein hydrolysis product of blood pressure lowering activity, the results show that: walnut protein enzymatic products have a good angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitory effect.

Kombucha

Kombucha can effectively lower blood pressure. Li Xiangrong et al. showed that kombucha could lower blood pressure to a certain extent by feeding it to spontaneously hypertensive rats, and the lophanic acid in kombucha played a role in lowering blood pressure. Ren Dandan et al. through further testing concluded that the kelp extract of Roburonic acid and other active ingredients can effectively inhibit the activity of angiotensin-converting enzyme, so as to achieve the effect of lowering blood pressure.