oa Editorial [Hot Topic: Natural Products for the Healthy Heart (Guest Editor : Dipak K. Das)]

Cardiovascular diseases remain the primary cause for the morbidity and mortality in the developed countries including United States of America. Maintaining a healthy heart is particularly important for those with a family history of coronary heart disease including hypertension, heart attack and atherosclerosis. Regular consumption of healthy food and maintaining a healthy life style certainly help maintaining a disease free life. Certain mineral-rich foods including those high in potassium, calcium and magnesium can control blood pressure. Low-fat milks are rich sources of calcium while magnesium and potassium can be found in green vegetables and fish oil. Among the fatty foods, limiting saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and trans fat would help reducing cholesterol and coronary heart diseases. Major sources of saturated fat include beef, butter, cheese, whole milk and coconut and palm oils. In contrast, polyunsaturated fats like omega-3-fatty acids containing foods including fish oil, flax seed oil and canola oil may reduce the risk of heart attack. Some of the examples for maintaining healthy heart include garlic, olive oil, broccoli, capsicum, Coenzyme Q10, fax seed, Terminalia Arjuna, Ashwagandha, Cocoa and fish oil. The present review series are carefully selected to cover most of the varieties of heart heath foods that can be found in Nature. Kailash Prasad, M.D., Ph.D. in Saskatoon, Canada, an authority of flax seed oil, has written a review on the slowing the progression of atherosclerosis with flaxseed oil. He has shown that although flaxseed oil does not regress hypercholesterolemic atherosclerosis, it slows the progression of atherosclerosis. Slowing of the progression of atherosclerosis could be due to a decrease in oxidative stress because of the antioxidant activity of flax seed oil. Etsuo Niki, Ph.D., from Osaka, Japan has described the assessment of antioxidant capacity of natural products. Professor Niki is a renowned scientist in antioxidant research. He has described various methods for the assessment of antioxidant capacity of natural products. In this review, Dr. Niki has also described antioxidant defense network in the cardiovascular system and bioavailability of these antioxidants. Arpad Tosaki, Ph.D., D.Sc., Professor, Chairman and Dean of the Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Debrecen, Hungary, has reviewed how grape skin and red wine derived polyphenolic antioxidant resveratrol can exert multifunctional cardioprotective abilities. Resveratrol possesses multifunctional health benefitsv including cardioprotective ability, acticancer activity, antidiabetic property and anti-hypercholesteromic effects. He and his colleagues have described how resvratrol can control such a diverse health benefits. Belma Turan, Ph.D., Professor and Head of Biophysics in Ankara University, Turkey, has described fow antioxidant foods moderate cardiovascular complications due to diabetes. She has reviewed the properties of several anatioxidant foods that not only scavenge oxygen-derived free radicals, but also can function as PPAR agonist to combat diabetic complications. In addition, Dr. Turan has discussed studies identifying redox-sensitive cardiac proteins responsible for redox signaling in cardiovascular system. Cesar G Fraga, Ph.D., a professor in Biochemistry and Pharmacyat the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and a Scientist at the Department of Nutrition, Univrsity of California at Davis has reviewed the role of dietary plant polyphenols in hyperyension He is an expert in antioxidant research and described current evidence linking consumption of these polyphenols linking with the reductionof high blood pressure. Consumption of cocoa and chocolate, grapes and wines, as well as black and green tea regulate nitric oxide bioavailability and blood pressure justifying the consumption of such polyphenol-rich foods to maintain blood pressure. Dipak K. Das, Ph.D., Sc.D., M.D (Hon), FAHA from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, USA and Aldo Bertelli, M.D., Ph.D./Mario Falchi, Ph.D. from the University of Milan, Italy jointly wrote an original manuscript describing how calendula officinalis [marigold] can ameliorate myocardial injury due to ischemia and reperfusion. This flower can lower blood pressure, cholesterol and reduce the incidence of ischemic heart disease. The results of the present study cleary demonstrated that this flower extract reduced myocardial ischemic reperfusion injury by reducing inflammatory response in the heart. Subir Maulik, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of Pharmacology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences has described ho Terminlia Arjuna made the transition from traditional to modern medicine in India. In traditional medicine stem bark of Terminalia Arjuna was used by the Ayurvedic Physicians in India for the treatment of various cardiovascular diseases, collectively referred to as hyritroga. In modern era, several clinical trials have proved this plant to be beneficial for the patients with stable angina, endothelial dysfunction, heart failure and ischemic mitral regurgitation. Tilman Grune, Ph.D. from the Institute of Biological Chemistry and Nutrition, University of Hohenhein, Stuttgart, Germany has described cardioprotective effects of curcumin and Ginkgo biloba. He and his colleagues describe an original study using two groups of SAMP8 mice fed a Western diet and Western diet plus curcumin or Ginkgo biloba extract. Analysis of various antioxidants and anflammatory mediators revieled that SAMR1 or SAMP8 nor curcumn/Ginkgo biloba affected the concentration of measured parameters suggesting that these strains are not suitable to study these parameters. Baolu Zhao, Ph.D. from the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, has reviewed potential benefits of using antioxidants to reduce myocardial ischemic reperfusion injury. He ad his coauthor has carefully described pros and cons of using these antioxidant compounds. Esuya Konishi, Ph.D., from the Niigata University of Pharmacy and Applied Life Sciences, Niigata, Japan, has discussed squalene as a novel food factor. Squalene was first identified in shark liver as a healing substance and now shown to be an effective functional food. This antioxidant substance possesses anticancer ability and can reduce plasma cholesterol. Lindsay Brown, Ph.D. from the University of Queensland Brisbane, Australia, has described how green tea can attenuate cardiovascular remodeling in high carbohydrate-fed rats. A group of scientists led by Professor Brown have shown how green tea could improve both cardiovascular symtoms and glucose intolerance simultaneously reducing oxidative stress in rats fed a high cabohydrate diet. The results clearly demonstrate that green tea reversed cardiovascular remodeling and metabolic changes seen in high-carbohydrate fed rats suggesting that green tea may be a useful complementary therapy in diet induced type 2 diabetes. Hannah R Vasanthi, Ph.D. and G.V.Rajamanickam, Ph.D. from the Center for Advance Research in Indian System of Medicine, Sastra University and Department of Biochemistry, Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Tamilnadu, India has contributed an original article describing that a flavonoid rich fraction of Dioscorea bulbifera (TAM) enhances mitochondrial enzymes and antioxidant status thereby protecting heart from isoproterenol-induced myocardial infarction. The results suggest the cardioprotective effect of yam in myocardial infarction was due to its ability to attenuate lipid peroxidation by scavenging free radicals and to modulate energy producing mitochondrial enzymes. Yi Zhun Zhu, Ph.D. Professor of the National University of Singapore, Singapore, has described the antiapoptotic effects of a novel compound from Herba leonuri Leonurine )SCM-198) through the inhibition of mitochondrial dysfuncti9on in H9c2 cells. In this original article, the authors showed that leonurine could protect H9c2 cells from H2O2-induced apoptosis via modulation of mitochondrial dysfunction associated with blocking the activation of JNK. Grant N. Pierce, Ph.D., a well-known nutritionist from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg Manitoba along with Dr. Paramjit S Tappia, Ph.D. and Pallab K Ganguly M.D., from the Alfaisal Univrsity, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has shown how vanadate in a tea decoction couls restore cadiac function in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. The authors show that administration of black tea extract for a period of 8 weeks could prevent the defect in IP3/PLC signaling that occurs in diabetes and could restore normal cardiac contractile function. Finally, Joel de Leiris, Ph.D. and Franko Boucher, Ph.D. from thev University of Grenoble, France have described that moderate wine drinking can strengthen the cardioprotective effect of fish consumption. The review addresses the role of two of the specific components of the Mediterranean diet, omega 3 fatty acids and wine and establishes a link between moderate wine consumption and fatty acid profiles. It is my hope that this special issue on nutrition and healthy heart would help the readers to change the eating habits by consuming heart-healthy foods. It should be clear from the above review series that it is important to limit unhealthy fats such as saturated and trans fats and cholesterol-rich foods simultaneously choosing healthy fats from olive oil, fax seed oil or canola oil and eating fruits and vegetables and whole grain and fibre rich foods.