Natural anti-hypertensive and anti-diabetic drugs-NAAN. MARIE CURIE ACTION

Hypertension and its complications appear to be increasingly common in Egypt. The overall estimated prevalence of hypertension in Egypt was 26.3%. Hypertension prevalence increased progressively with age. Overall, 37.5% of hypertensive individuals were aware that they had high blood pressure, 23.9% were being treated with antihypertensive medications, and only 8.0% were under control. These results indicate that the rates of hypertension awareness, treatment, and control are relatively low. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a complex metabolic disorder that increases tremendously all over the world. Diabetes and its complications impose significant economic consequences on individuals, families, health systems and countries. Many medicinal plants have been used to treat (DM) and hypertension since the ancient times as reported in the Ebers papyrus in Egypt. Phytotherapy is not yet included in the evidence-based medicine, especially with respect to DM and hypertension therapies. Studies of potential anti-diabetic and antihypertensive plants will definitely confer scientific and systematic approach for the use of these plants as hypoglycaemic and hypotensives agents. Solanum fruits and Egyptian dates have been used since ancient times as antihypertensive and antidiabetic in African folk medicine. Although, little is known so far about the active constituents and mechanism of action of Solanum fruits, its long use in African folk medicine and the fact that it belongs to everyday food in several countries, encouraged us to subject this obviously safe plant to detailed scientific research, in order to produce a safe and effective anti- hypertensive preparation. The project aims to define the most active fraction of the 2 plants extracts and determine their mechanism of action as anti-hypertensive and antidiabetic drugs respectively. This will be as a first step to the development of safe and effective natural drugs.