Antioxidative and hypolipidemic effect of some common herbs

Abstract

Hyperlipidemia was induced in adult male albino rats which weighed 100-120 g and then were fed on diets containing (W/W) 0.5% cinnamon, ginger or marjoram for 5 weeks to study their effect on serum biochemical parameters (total lipids, total cholesterol, triacylglycerols, high density lipoprotein-cholesterol, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol, very low density lipoprotein-cholesterol and malondialdehyde). This study has shown that the three studied herbs resulted in an improvement of all lipid parameters, except for cinnamon which had non significant decrease in total cholesterol, while marjoram did not affect on triacylglycerols and very low density lipoprotein-cholesterol. Also these herbs have an antioxidative effect which has been shown by reducing malondialdehyde levels. It may be concluded that the potency of herbs in reducing hyperlipidemia and inhibiting lipid oxidation was as follows: ginger > cinnamon> marjoram.