Content area
Full Text
Abstract
Hypercholesterolemia is a disorder of cholesterol metabolism, caused by cholesterol level in the blood exceeding the normal limit. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of fresh and roasted canarium nut treatment (Canarium vulgare L.) on lowering cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and triglyceride levels, while increasing high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels and repairing aortic tissue histopathology. This study used 24 male Wistar rats (Rattus norvegicus). The experimental animals were treated with induced hypercholesterolemia for 9 weeks. The treatment was conducted for 4 weeks, with the provision of 0.9, 1.8 or2.7 g fresh and roasted canarium nut. The design used in this study was a completely randomized design (CRD) followed by Tukey test on treatments which differed significantly. Fresh and roasted canarium nut treatment reduced cholesterol, LDL, and triglycerides and increased HDL in hypercholesterolemic rats. Fresh and roasted canarium nut treatment reduced endothelial damage in aortic histopathology. Fresh canarium nut therapy and roasted canarium nut treatment show potential in curing hypercholesterolemia and minimizing endothelial dysfunction.
Keywords: Cholesterol, LDL, HDL, Triglycerides, Histopathology
INTRODUCTION
Canarium nut is a tropical plant of the family Burseraceae, genus Canarium, and its 100 species mostly grow in lowland moist forests of Melanesia (Doke and Guha 2015, Rabbani et al. 2014, Safdari et al. 2013). Canarium nut (Canarium harveyi) grows in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu (Kennedy and Clarke 2004). In Indonesia, canarium nut commonly grows in eastern areas such as Sulawesi, Maluku, and North Maluku. Canarium nut (C. vulgare L.) is high in unsaturated fatty acids and protein. Fresh canarium nut contains 2174.1-2618.0 mg/g linolenic acid, 136.8-142.6 mg/g linoleic acid, 8152.6-9295.2 mg/g oleic acid, and 8.2-9.7% protein, while sand-roasted canarium nut contains 3791.9-5106.0 mg/g linolenic acid, 182.7-252.2 mg/g linoleic acid, 10980.9-12824.2 mg/g oleic acid and 12.1-13.7% protein (Şen et al. 2014, Şenol et al. 2015, Thomson and Evans 2006).
Hypercholesterolemia is a disorder of cholesterol metabolism, caused by the cholesterol level in the blood exceeding the normal limit. The disease is also caused by the excess production of free radical oxygen and oxidative stress (Mailoa 2015). High LDL concentrations affect the development of LDL oxidation in hypercholesterolemia. Pet food which contains meat, liver, brain, and viscera causes an excess of total cholesterol in the blood (Shakirin et...