ACE and Hypertension: Sub-chronic HCE treatment of DSS rats prevented the development of hypertension, presumably via the polyphenols, tannins, triterpenes and saponins present in the extract.19-21 These compounds have a large variety of pharmacological actions which include stimulation of endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthesis22-24 and inhibition of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity.25 We suggest that the extract directly or indirectly influenced the cardiovascular and other systems to possibly offer long-term cardioprotection in DSS rats.