Yellow peas may help control blood pressure

Chicago, March 23: A new research from Canadian scientists suggests that proteins found in a yellow garden pea can help control blood pressure and prevent chronic kidney disease (CKD), the two potentially life-threatening conditions affecting millions of people worldwide.

The study, carried out by researchers at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, is the first report suggesting that a natural food product can delay, control or even prevent the onset of CKD, at least in rats.

"What we seem to have here is sort of a natural approach to treating this disease, as opposed to the normal pharmacological approach," said the study's lead author, Rotimi E. Aluko, a food chemist at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. "We're talking about an edible product, not a drug, which can help to reduce blood pressure and, at the same time, reduce the severely negative impact of kidney disease."

To reach their findings, Aluko and his colleague Harold Aukema, Ph.D., from University of Manitoba purified a mixture of small protein, called pea protein hydrolysate, from the yellow garden pea and fed small daily doses of the protein mixture to laboratory rats with the severe form of kidney disease.

After an eight-week-long follow-up, the researchers found that the protein-fed rats with kidney disease had their blood pressure dropped by 20 percent compared to diseased rats who consumed normal diet.

"This is significant because a majority of chronic kidney disease patients actually die from cardiovascular complications that arise from the high blood pressure associated with kidney malfunction," said Aluko.

Peas are widely known as a rich source of potassium, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc, vitamins, amino acids, dietary fibre and protein, wrapped in a low-fat, cholesterol-free package.

Known as the “silent killer”, high blood pressure, or hypertension in the medical term, is a major risk factor for CKD, which is a progressive loss of renal function over a period of months or years. The disease is difficult to treat, and has been affecting an increasing number of people around the world.

CKD, which is one of the deadliest complications of hypertension, may progress to end-stage kidney disease that requires one of the forms of renal replacement therapy; this may be a form of dialysis or a kidney transplant.

Aluko says their newly discovered yellow pea protein extract can dramatically affect blood pressure and chronic kidney disease.

"In people with high blood pressure, our protein could potentially delay or prevent the onset of kidney damage," said Aluko. "In people who already have kidney disease, our protein may help them maintain normal blood pressure levels so they can live longer."

However, he noted that eating yellow peas in their natural state will not produce the desired health benefits as the purified protein extract. To have the potential health benefits, peas must be activated by treatment with special enzymes.

Aluko said the promising results of their study have prompted them to test the protein extract in humans. The researchers will test the protein extract in humans with mild hypertension within the next year at the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, University of Manitoba, in collaboration with co-investigator Dr. Peter Jones. And, if successful, a pea-based therapy may hit the market within the next two to three years.

The study was funded by the government of Canada’s Advanced Foods and Materials Network of Centre of Excellence (AFMnet), and presented Sunday at the American Chemical Society's 237th national meeting in Salt Lake City in the United States.