Abstract
It is known that elevation of total cholesterol (TC) or LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) causes various diseases. However, it has also been shown that intake of polyphenol improves lipid metabolism and lowers vascular disease risk. A feature of pine bark extract is its high content of polyphenol, and this extract is expected to have therapeutic application for reducing TC and LDL-C levels in the blood and liver. Therefore we examined the effect of pine bark extract on TC level in rats that were fed high-cholesterol diets. Five groups of rats were fed a control diet, a high-cholesterol diet, or diets containing pine bark extract (0.02%, 0.2%, 2% added) during the test period. Plasma TC, HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C), triglyceride (TG) and phospholipid (PL) were measured at intervals during the feeding period. In addition, TC and TG in the liver, and cholesterol and total bile acids (TBA) in the feces were also measured. It was found that the plasma TC level decreased, the plasma HDL-C level increased, and the liver TC level decreased in the group fed the pine-bark-extract-containing diet. Cholesterol and TBA levels in the feces increased in the pine-bark-extract-fed rats, suggesting that pine bark extract promoted excretion of cholesterol and bile acids. These results indicate that pine bark extract lowers cholesterol levels in both the blood and liver.
