The Effects of Chlorella on the Levels of Cholesterol in Serum and Liver

Abstract

The effects of dietary dried Chlorella on the levels of cholesterol in serum and liver of cholesterolfed mice and on the level of serum cholesterol of inpatients were comparatively investigated.
Male mice of the dd strain were fed on the hypercholesterolemic diet, containing 2% cholesterol, for 7 days. In these animals, the levels of liver total lipids and cholesterol were significantly elevataed. But, the addition of 10% dried Chlorella powder to the diet greatly depressed those elevations and moreover lowered the liver triglyceride level compared with that of cholesterol group.
In the human trial, sixteen inpatients with hypercholesterolemia were given 20 tablets (5g) of dried Chlorella to each person every day for 3 months without administering anti-hypercholesterolemic drugs and low fat diets. The serum cholesterol levels of the inpatients were significantly lowered with the Chlorella ingestion after 3 months, where those of inpatients with 200-250mg/dl cholesterol before experiment were much more lowered to the level close to the normal range.