Dried green leaf powders of Jew's mellow (Corchorus), persimmon (Diospyros kaki) and sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas poir) lower hepatic cholesterol concentration and increase fecal bile acid excretion in rats fed a cholesterol-free diet

摘要

A cholesterol-free diet containing dried powder of Jew's mellow leaves, persimmon leaves or sweet potato leaves respectively at 5% level as dietary fibre was fed to male Sprague-Dawley rats for about one month. The experiment was conducted twice except for sweet potato leaves. In the groups fed the diet mixed with powders of any of the 3 different dried green leaves, hepatic cholesterol concentration significantly decreased. Such lowering was not observed in serum cholesterol concentration comparedwith the control (cellulose) group. A significant increase in faecal weight was observed in all the groups fed the green leaf samples. All the dried green leaves increased faecal excretion of bile acids per gram or per day compared with the control group in both experiments, but only the dried Jew's mellow leaves showed an increased excretion of neutral sterols. The results suggest that lowering of hepatic cholesterol by powdered green leaves is not necessarily due to the same factor, but to the increased faecal excretion of bile acids due to inhibited enterohepatic circulation in animals given these samples.