Abstract
To evaluate the effect of the mushroom on cholesterol metabolism, rats were fed ad libitum for 10 weeks with a diet containing either 5% dried mushroom or 0.5% ergosterolwith or without exogenous cholesterol. The results indicated that the dried mushroom couldremarkably reduce the plasma cholesterol but did not reduce the liver cholesterol. On theother hand, the rats fed with a diet containing ergosterol showed high cholesterol contentsin both plasma and liver. These results suggest that the effect of mushroom on the plasmacholesterol is not due to the ergosterol but due to some other substances contained in themushroom.
