Abstract

There are efforts directed towards the search for medicinal plants capable of ameliorating hyperlipidemia. The present study sought to investigate the capacity of ethanolic leaf extracts of Hibiscus rose-sinesis, Emilia coccinea, Acanthus montanus and Asystasia gangetica to ameliorate hyperlipidemia in animal model. Hyperlipidemia was induced by placing experimental animals on lipogenic diet containing 2.5% cholesterol, 20% sunflower oil and 0.5% sodium cholate. Separate leaf extracts of the four plants (dose = 400 mg/kg) were administered to various groups of the experimental animals by intra peritoneal injection at regular time intervals of 12 h for 14 days. At the end of treatment, blood samples of the rabbits were measured for total cholesterol (TC), triacylglycerol (TAG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations. Generally, treatment of hyperlipidemic rabbits (HyL-Rs) with the four plant extracts caused different levels of lowered serum lipid components with concomitant elevation of HDL-C concentration. Specifically, the capacities of the four plant extracts to reduce serum levels of TC in the experimental animals were in the order: H. rose-sinesis > A. montanus > A. gangetica > E. coccinea. In addition, serum lipid profile (SLP) of HyL-Rs treated with extract of H. rose-sinesis was comparable with the control groups. The present study showed that the tendency but varied capacities of the four experimental plant extracts to alter SLP of HyL-Rs were associated with their phytochemical peculiarities, which suggested that certain phytochemicals exhibit hypolipidemic activity in vivo.

Key words: Serum lipid profile, Hibiscus rose-sinesis, Emilia coccinea, Acanthus montanus and Asystasia gangetica.