UNS — Three students from Animal Husbandry Program Faculty of Agriculture (FP) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta, Irma Khikmawati, Savira Margi Rahayu, and Annisa Nur Amieni, under the supervision of Dr. agr. Muhammad Cahyadi, S.Pt., M.Biotech offered hypertension medicine in jelly form. This innovation was funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture (Kemendikbud) Republic of Indonesia (RI) through Student Creativity Program (PKM) and passed the selection to join the 33rd National Student Science Week (Pimnas) 2020.
Irma Khikmawati stated that the background she and her team decided to offer hypertension medicine is because they felt people concern over the negative effect of hypertension medicine consumed by patients. The adverse effects include cough, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation, nervousness, skin rash, and tiredness.
Hypertension is marked by the increase in systolic blood pressure higher than 140 mmHg and diastolic pressure higher than 90 mmHg. This illness can occur without the patient’s realization and become the cause for stroke, heart disease, and damage to other organs such as the brain, kidneys, eyes, and other organs. Scientifically, hypertension occurs because of an imbalance in Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme (ACE), which regulates blood pressure and can be affected by the environment. This imbalance is triggered by stress, alcohol consumption, smoking, obesity, high sodium and fat food consumption, and lack of physical activities.
Hypertension medicine in the form of jelly can become a reference offers for new drug breakthroughs. This medicine is made from the protein structure in bovine bones in the form of collagen, which is converted to gelatin. The characteristic of this gelling agent can be processed into jelly. Gelatin is known to be composed from collagens found in animal protein, including from bovine bones. The collagen structure in bovine bones is found to have bioactive peptide composition, which is useful as an ACE inhibitor. “Bovine bones as a side product of livestock products has the type of protein known as the ACE inhibitor. ACE inhibitor antioxidant and antihypertensive properties that are usually found in animal protein,” Irma explained, Monday (23/11/2020).
The antihypertension test on gelatin has been conducted by several experts. A study conducted by Kim et al. (2001) on a mouse with high blood pressure, which is given 30mg/kg peptide from cow-hide gelatin, found decreased blood pressure by 15 mmHg. Another study from Faria et al. (2008) found that cow gelatin can reduce blood pressure by 22 mmHg and 21.33 mmHg.
“Based on studies conducted by experts, bovine bones gelatin has the potential to reduce high blood pressure. The gelatin potential can be used as medicine in the form of jelly, which is easy to eat, and liked by almost everyone,” she concluded. Humas UNS
Reporter: Dwi Hastuti
