Antihyperlipidemic activity of isolated constituents from the fruits of Lagenaria siceraria in albino rats

Abstract

Hyperlipidemia is defi ned as increase in the lipid content (groups of fat or fat like substances along with their lipoprotein counterpart) in blood. Abundant evidence are there to proof the link between hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis. Lagenaria siceraria commonly known as Bottle gourd, which is offi cial in Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India, and having composition of variety of essential phytoconstituents, so that the fruits are traditionally used for their cardioprotective, cardiotonic, general tonic, diuretic, aphrodisiac, antidote to certain poisons and scorpion strings, alternative purgative, and cooling eff ects. In the present study fruit juice was obtained by crushing the
fresh fruits of L. siceraria in the juicer and was subsequently dried in the oven at 40°-50°C. Th e parent dried juice extract was then fractionated by using the solvents according to polarity in ascending order i.e. by using chloroform: acetic acid, methanol, pyridine, and water. Each fraction was dried in oven at 40°-50°C. Th in layer chromatography (TLC) used active fraction obtained by column chromatography for further isolation. Th e solvent system developed on trial and error basis was n-butanol: methaol: water (6:2:2). Four spots were obtained and were named as LSN-I, LSN-II, LSN-III and LSN-IV. Isolated spots were collected by using preparative TLC the isolated compounds were tested for Antihyperlipidemic activity and compounds LSN-I, LSN-II, LSN-III has shown signifi cant results.
Th e study exhibited that elevated levels of blood cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, were signifi cantly reduced and decreased HDL was signifi cantly increased by the administration of fractions of L. siceraria fruit juice.
Key words: Atherosclerosis, hyperlipidemia, Lagenaria siceraria