Washington, Oct 14: Chicken soup, a popular home remedy for common cold, may have a role in fighting high blood pressure, according to a Japanese study.

Ai Saiga of Nippon Meat Packers and colleagues cited previous studies indicating that chicken breast contains collagen proteins with effects similar to ACE inhibitors, mainstay medications for treating high BP.

But chicken breast contains such small amounts of the proteins that it could not be used to develop food and medical products for high BP. Chicken legs and feet, which are often discarded as waste products in the US and are key soup ingredients elsewhere, appear to be a better source, according to a release of American Chemical Society (ACS).

In the new study, Saiga and colleagues extracted collagen from chicken legs and tested its ability to act as an ACE inhibitor in lab studies. They identified four different proteins in the collagen mixture with high ACE-inhibitory activity.

Given to rats used to model human high BP, the proteins produced a significant and prolonged decrease in blood pressure, the researchers said.

The research is scheduled for publication in the Oct 22 issue of ACS` biweekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

IANS