Fig. 1.

Dietary (−)-epicatechin (EC) and blood pressure. A: chemical structure of EC; B: systolic blood pressure (SBP) of rats subjected to L-NAME pre-treatment (40 mg/kg/d in drinking water) for 6 days; and C: SBP of rats administered with L-NAME (open square), or L-NAME + EC 0.4 g/100 g diet (closed square) during the subsequent 8 days. Sprague–Dawley rats (130–140 g) were maintained under controlled housing conditions. SBP was measured in preconditioned, conscious and restrained rats by tail-cuff plethysmography. Data are presented as means ± SEM. Groups were compared using ANOVA. *: p<0.05 respect to day zero of treatment (B), or to L-NAME treated rats (C).