Abstract
Effect of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) juice extracted by squeezing and centrifugation methods on lipids profile in healthy and induced hypercholesterolemic rats was investigated. Eighty adult male Sprague Dawley derived rats were individually housed in stainless steel cages having wires mesh bottoms and fronts in room maintained at 25-30 ºC, and light between 7:0 AM and 7:0 PM daily. Animals were randomly divided into two groups of forty animals, first group was undertaken to be the normal animals and the second group of other forty animals were fed on 4% cholesterol diet (Tables 1 and 2) before starting the experiment and fed 2% cholesterol diet through the experiments. Each group was divided into eight subgroups related to seven pomegranate juices and control, five each and fed the diets for 28 days. The rats were daily gavaged with 1 ml pomegranate juice after feeding except those of control groups giving 1ml distilled water. Lipids profile was measured at the beginning and at the termination of the experiment the rats were decapitated and blood was taken from the animals to measure again the above parameters. Results show that consumption of different pomegranate juices by healthy and hypercholesterolemic rats significantly (P<0.05) decreased TG, TC, LDL-C, TC/HDL-C and LDL-C/HDL-C and increased HDL-C values compared with control groups. In conclusion, pomegranate juice showed lipid-lowering effects in healthy and experimentally induced hypercholesterolemia rats, and could be requisite in reducing lipidemia as a factor of atherosclerosis risk.
