Dragon fruit improves vascular function in adults

Eating dragon fruits leads to better endothelial function and improvements in arterial stiffness in healthy individuals, a study has shown.

“This implies that regular dragon fruit consumption may have a meaningful impact on cardiovascular disease risk likely due to [its] high betalain content,” the authors said.

In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial, the authors examined the effects of acute and short-term consumption of dragon fruit on vascular function in a healthy population. Nineteen young, healthy, nonsmoking men and women were randomly assigned to consume 24-g whole dragon fruit powder (33-mg betalains) or a nutrient-matched placebo daily for 14 days.

The authors measured flow-mediated dilation (FMD), arterial stiffness, and blood pressure (BP) at 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 hours and finally at 14 days after daily consumption.

Eighteen of the 19 participants completed the trial. Dragon fruit consumption led to significantly better acute FMD at 2 hours (0.8 percent; p=0.01), 3 hours (1.0 percent; p=0.001), and 4 hours (1.3 percent; p<0.001) postconsumption relative to placebo. Such effect persisted until day 14 (1.3 percent; p<0.001).

Eating dragon fruits also significantly reduced pulse-wave velocity at 3 hours (‒0.5 m/s; p=0.003) and improved augmentation index after 14 days (‒7.0 percent; p=0.02) compared with placebo. Of note, there were no differences seen in either peripheral or central blood pressure across time points.

“Betalains are natural red colour pigments abundant in red-fleshed dragon fruit,” the authors said. “Recent research has shown that dragon fruit consumption may help improve blood glucose and lipid profile.”