Herbal Artichoke Normalizes the Levels of Serum Cholesterol in Vivo and Human Study

By Kyle J. Norton


Hyperlipidemia is a chronic condition of abnormally high blood cholesterol in the bloodstream.

Cholesterol is a waxy substance produced by the liver or dietary intake that processes a significant activity in the improvement of the digestive system by breaking down food, in the production of vitamin D and steroid hormone, particularly in the building of strong cell membranes.

There are 2 types of cholesterol. The low-density lipoprotein is also known as bad cholesterol which performs the aforementioned activity in the right levels and high-density lipoprotein which returns cholesterol back to the liver for reuse.

However, overexpression of cholesterol can cause plaque building up on the arterial wall, leading to arterial narrowing, wall stiffness, and hardening, some major causes of heart disease and stroke.

According to the free radical theory, overexpression of cholesterol also increases the risk of lipid peroxidation, leading to the onset of various diseases.

Dr, Yagi K, at the Institute of Applied Biochemistry in the analysis of the lipid peroxides and human diseases, said, "The lipid peroxidation (LPO) products are highly reactive and display marked biological effects, which, depending upon their concentration, cause selective alterations in cell signaling, protein and DNA damage, and cytotoxicity"

And. "Increased formation of lipid peroxides and aldehydes has been observed in atherosclerosis, ischemia-reperfusion, heart failure, Alzheimer’s disease, rheumatic arthritis, cancer, and other immunological disorders".

The findings clearly suggested that your risk of diseases is increased substantially if you have abnormally high blood cholesterol.

Artichoke is a perennial thistle of Cynara cardunculus species of the Cynara genus, belonging to the family Carduoideae native to Southern Europe around the Mediterranean.

The herbal plant has been used in traditional medicine for as liver protective and detoxified agent, and to treat digestive disorders, abdominal pain gas and bloating, etc.

Researchers on the finding a natural therapeutics for the treatment of abnormal blood cholesterol, researchers examined artichoke leaf extract (ALE) activity in lowering the plasma total and non-HDL cholesterol by increasing fecal excretion of neutral bile acids and sterols.

The study included 64 Golden Syrian hamsters (8 weeks old) fed control diet or a similar diet containing ALE (4.5 g/kg diet) for 6 weeks.

There were no significant changes for total cholesterol, HDL, non-HDL cholesterol triglycerides or fecal neutral sterols and bile acids were after 21 days for ALE-fed animals compared with controls.

However, ALE-fed male hamsters had significantly lower total cholesterol (15%), non-HDL cholesterol (30%) and triglycerides (22%) and female hamsters fed ALE showed reductions of 15% for total cholesterol, 29% for non-HDL cholesterol and 29% for triglycerides compared with controls after 42 days.

Furthermore, the total neutral sterol and bile acids concentrations also increased significantly by 50% and 53% in fecal samples of ALE fed males, and 82.4% and 25% in ALE fed females compared with controls. 

Dr. Qiang Z, after taking into account other factors, said, "he ALE lowered hamster plasma cholesterol levels by a mechanism involving the greater excretion of fecal bile acids and neutral sterols after feeding for 42 days".

In order to reveal more information about artichoke anti-high blood cholesterol property, researchers evaluated the effects of artichoke leaf extract (ALE) supplementation (250 mg, 2 b.i.d.) on the lipid pattern,

The randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial included 92 overweight subjects with primary mild hypercholesterolemia for 8 weeks.

46 subjects were randomized to supplementation (age: 54.2 ± 6.6 years, body mass index (BMI): 25.8 ± 3.9 kg/m(2), male/female: 20/26) and 46 subjects to placebo (age: 53.8 ± 9.0 years, BMI: 24.8 ± 1.6 kg/m(2), male/female: 21/25).

Artichoke leaf extract (ALE) supplementation was associated with a significant increase in mean high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol (p < 0.001) and in mean change in HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) (p = 0.004).

Moreover, ALE also significantly decreased the mean change in total cholesterol (p = 0.033), low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol (p < 0.001), total cholesterol/HDL ratio (p < 0.001) and LDL/HDL ratio (p < 0.001) comapred to control.

The findings clearly supported the use of artichoke leaf extract ALE for the treatment of patients with mild high blood cholesterol.

Taken altogether, artichoke may be considered a functional formula for the treatment of patients with high blood cholesterol with no side effects, pending to the validation of larger sample size and multicenter human study.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References
(1) Artichoke extract lowered plasma cholesterol and increased fecal bile acids in Golden Syrian hamsters by Qiang Z1, Lee SO, Ye Z, Wu X, Hendrich S.(PubMed)
(2) Beneficial effects of artichoke leaf extract supplementation on increasing HDL-cholesterol in subjects with primary mild hypercholesterolaemia: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial by Rondanelli M1, Giacosa A, Opizzi A, Faliva MA, Sala P, Perna S, Riva A, Morazzoni P, Bombardelli E. (PubMed)
(3) Lipid Peroxidation Products in Human Health and Disease by Kota V. Ramana,1 Sanjay Srivastava,2 and Sharad S. Singha. (Hindawi)