Effect of Ginkgo Biloba on Hypercholesterolemic Rats

Abstract

Hypercholesterolemia has been implicated in causation of coronary heart disease.Ginkgo biloba has been used in some countries as a hypolipidemic agent.Accordingly, this study aimed to study the effect of different doses of Ginkgo biloba extract (GBE) on lipid profile, liver and kidney functions in hypercholesterolemic rats. Forty eight rats were divided into six groups. The first group was fed on standard diet only as negative control. Second group was fed onhypercholesterolemic diet as positive control. The other four groups were fed on hypercholesterolemic diet for four weeks to induce hypercholesterolemia,thenthese groups were fed on standard diet and orally administrated different levels of GBE (25, 50, 75 and 100 mg/kg B.W/day) for 28 days. Also GBE was applied in functional food by making biscuits fortified with this extract with the four doses (25, 50, 75 and 100 mg/kg) used in this experiment. Results showed thatusing four levels of GBE in treating hypercholesterolemic rats led to significant improvement in lipid profile.Levels of 50, 75 and 100 GBE mg/kg B.W induced significant decrease in serum triglycerides and cholesterol in hypercholesterolemicgroups, as compared to positive control and GBE 25 mg/kg B.W groups.All treated groups with different levels of GBE produced an improvement in serum ALT, AST, uric acid and creatinine levels, as compared to positive control group. Histological examination of liver tissues indicated progress in morphological changes occurred in hypercholesterolemic rats via ingestion of GBE. It was found that biscuits supplemented with 25 mg of GBE then sample supplemented with 50 mg of GBE tended to have the best taste and overall acceptable among all supplemented samples. So it can be recommended to consume biscuits fortified with 50 mg of GBE for their health benefits and acceptability by panels.