ORIGINAL ARTICLE Bali Medical Journal (Bali Med J) 2016, Volume 5, Number 2: 252-255 P-ISSN.2089-1180, E-ISSN.2302-2914 252 Open access: www.balimedicaljournal.org and ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/bmj CrossMark Published by DiscoverSys ABSTRACT Background: Purple sweet potato tuber extract in liquid form, shown to lower blood pressure of hypertensive rats and hypertensive patients. Liquid dosage form, increasingly unstable when stored for long periods, thus it is necessary to find a more stable dosage form. The objective of this research was to prove that dry extract of purple sweet potato tuber has the same effects with liquid extract in hypertensive rats. Method: The is a randomized pre-test and post-test control group design study. Thirty hypertensive model rats were divided into 5 groups (6 animals for each group). Group 1 was treated as a control group. Group 2 to group 5 were treated as treatment groups. Treatment groups were given liquid extract at a dose of 3 ml, dry extract with the dose of 200 mg, dry extract that stored in a certain time with a dose of 200 mg and given a mixture of dry extract with a carrier substance (capsule formula) with a dose of 200 mg, respectively, for 4 weeks. Variables observed were blood pressure, SOD and MDA level of the blood. Results: The results showed that the group given the purple sweet potato tuber extract lowers blood pressure were significantly in liquid extract or dry extract (p <0.01). The group that was treated with capsule formula showed more decrease in blood pressure than dry extract group (p <0.01). The similar results happened on MDA and SOD level in blood. Conclusions: Thus, it can be concluded that dried extract of purple sweet potato tubers has the same effectiveness with liquid extract, both as an antihypertensive and also antioxidant. Capsules formula is more effective than liquid extract and dry extract. Keywords: Dry extract, purple sweet potato, tuber, antihypertensive, antioxidant, hypertensive. Cite This Article: Jawi, I., Yasa, I., Mahendra, A. 2016. Antihypertensive and antioxidant potential of purple sweet potato tuber dry extract in Hypertensive rats. Bali Medical Journal 5(2): 252-255. DOI:10.15562/bmj.v5i2.217 INTRODUCTION Today, people tend to use traditional herbs as an alternative medicine. Herbal medicine based from plants have been developed and empirically used to treat and prevent a variety of diseases including cardiovascular diseases. Hypertension is one cardio- vascular disease which has high incident that cause illness and death. Epidemiological studies prove that regularly eating fruits and vegetables that contain favonoids, can reduce cardiovascular disease through antioxidant efects. 1 Flavonoids from vari- ous plants can improve vascular endothelial func- tion, 2 through the improvement of the availability of nitric oxide (NO), which can lower blood pressure. 3-5 Purple sweet potato tuber contains high antho- cyanin pigments, 6 which is a favonoid that has been proven to be an antioxidant in vitro 7-9 and in vivo. 10- 12 It can also lower blood pressure in animals and patients with hypertension. 13,14 Research conducted in patients with mild to moderate hypertension proved that purple sweet potato tuber extract in liquid dosage forms, lower blood pressure with ef- cacy comparable to captopril. 15 Te downside of purple sweet potato tuber extract liquid dosage form, increasingly unstable when stored for long periods. Extract in liquid form ofen changes in color and favor when stored for more than one week at room temperature, so it is necessary to fnd alternatives that is more stable and easily stored with the same efectiveness with a liquid form. Research about purple sweet potato tuber extract in a dry form hasn’t been held, and it is expected to have efectiveness that is comparable to the liquid extract. To prove these allegations, labo- ratory tests were conducted using an experimental model of hypertensive rats treated with dry extract of purple sweet potato tubers for 4 weeks. MATERIALS AND METHODS Animal and Experimental Design Wistar male rats (150 – 200 g), 3-4 months old, were obtained from Animal House Facility of Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, were used in this study. All rats were maintained under stan- dard laboratory conditions at temperature of 25 ± 2°C, 50 ± 15% relative humidity and normal photo- period (12-hours light-dark cycle). Commercial pellet diet and water were provided ad libitum for those animals. Te usage of these animals were 1 Department of Pharmacology Faculty of Medicine, Udayana University Bali Indonesia. 2 Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Udayana University Bali Indonesia. * Correspondence to: I Made Jawi, Department of Pharmacology Faculty of Medicine, Udayana University Bali Indonesia made_jawi@yahoo.co.id Antihypertensive and antioxidant potential of purple sweet potato tuber dry extract in Hypertensive rats I Made Jawi, 1* I W P Sutirta Yasa, 2 Agung Nova Mahendra 1