Anti-hyperlipidemic Effect of Date Palm on Hyperlipidemia in Rats

Hyperlipidaemia also called high cholesterol level is an important cause of adverse health outcomes including cardiovascular complications, obesity, metabolic disorders, infertility. Date fruit is rich in phytochemicals such as carotenoids, polyphenols (e.g., phenolic acids, isoflavons, lignans, and flavonoids), tannins, and sterols. Thus with protective effect potential on hyperlipidemia. the study is design to investigate whether date palm have protective effect on margarine induced hyperlipidemia in rats. Thirty adult wistar rats weighing between 175-220g were used for this experiment. animals were divided into six groups of five rats each. group a served as control, group b was administered with margarine only. Groups C, D and E administered with margarine plus different doses of date palm extract (300, 6000 and 1200mg/kg body weight) whilst group F was administered with margarine and standard drug (atorvastatin) for eight weeks. At the end of the experiment, the wistar rats were weighed then anesthetized using chloroform. Blood tissue was collected from abdominal aorta for lipid profile analysis and differential blood count. There was significant reduction in the level of cholesterol and low density lipoprotein in groups treated with different doses of date palm extracts plus margarine compared with hyperlipidermic rats (group B). This may be due to date palm anti- hypolipidermic properties. There was an observable change in haematological parameters in some of the groups, the histopathological analysis revealed a normal myocardial, interstitial spaces and coronary vessels in all the treated groups compared to hyperlipidermic rats (group B). Date palm shows a protective effect in hyperlipidermic rats induced with margarine, thus, date palm possesses a significant anti-hyperlipidermic effect.

Key Words: Hyperlipidaemia, lipoprotein, isoflavons, flavonoids