Abstract

Background: Regarding to the patient's unwillingness toward lifestyle modification or drug therapy for hypertension and asymptomatic nature of this disease, the control of hypertension is difficult and may be resistant is some instants. On the other hand the popular tendency to the herbal medicines to treat disease including hypertension is grown. Objective: Based on animal and human individual reports of antihypertensive effects of olive leaf extract, and lack of well controlled human clinical trials, in this study the effects of olive leaf on mild to moderate and resistant blood pressure was evaluated. Method: In this placebo controlled double blind randomized clinical trial, 64 patients with mild to moderate hypertension referring to Heart Clinic, Baghyatollah Hospital were randomly assigned to receive treatment with olive leaf powder, 1000 mg daily or placebo. Patients underwent Holter monitoring for 24 hours at the beginning and end of the treatment. For each patient demographic information, risk factors of atherosclerosis and co-morbid medical conditions were recorded as well as maximum systolic and diastolic blood pressure, minimum systolic and diastolic blood pressure, mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and maximum and minimum heart rate before, during and after the treatment were recorded by holter manitoring. Results: The treatment groups were similar according to sex, age, height, weight, BMI (Body Mass Index), and risk factors of atherosclerosis. Significant reduction occurred in mean and maximum systolic blood pressure in the olive leaf extract group, but reduction in diastolic and mean arterial pressure was not significant in this group. In the other hand, in the placebo group, systolic, diastolic and mean arterial pressure underwent significant increase after the treatment. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, olive leaf extract is an effective agent in reducing the blood pressure especially systolic blood pressure in hypertensive patients. Based on the role of isolated systolic hypertension in patient's complications, this botanical material is a suitable adopted drug for reducing the cardiovascular risks in the hypertensive subjects.