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Tobias I. Ndubuisi Ezejiofor1* and Stephen C. korie2
1Phd- Professor, Head of Department, and Supervisor to Student,
2M.Sc. Student, Department of Biotechnology, School of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria
A B S T R A C T
Hypertension remains one of the non-communicable diseases of public health importance in the present millennium. Towards the search for this problem, and given the relationship between hyperlipidaemia and hypertension, this study investigated the antihyperlipidaemic potentials of ethanolic leaf extract of Diodia sarmentosa on high fat diet-fed wistar rats. Thirty (30) male wistar rats (150g-200g) were divided into five (5) groups- Negative control (NC) group that was neither induced nor treated, Positive control (PC) that was induced but not treated, Low dose extract (LDE) group treated with 250mg/kg of the extract, High dose extract (HDE) group treated with 500mg/kg of the extract and Standard antihyperlipidaemic drug (SAD) group treated with 5mg/kg of Simvastatin. High fat diet was induced by feeding the rats with Ghee and Coconut oil in the ratio of 3:1 for a period of six (6) weeks, while administration of the treatments lasted for 4 weeks (3rd- 6th week), at the end of which animals were sacrificed and blood samples collected for subsequent serum lipid profile assays. Using standard analytical methods, Serum Total cholesterol (TC), Triglycerides (TG), High density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), Low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), Very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C) analyses were performed, and Atherogenic coefficient (AC), Castelli’s Risk Index I (CR I) and Castelli’s Risk Index II(CR II) also calculated. Results showed that the mean concentrations (mg/dl) of the lipid profiles of the various groups ranges as follows: TC:80.53±7.14 (SAD) – 177.25±2.93(PC), TG:45.64±1.77 (SAD) – 159.74±4.69 (PC), HDL:35.19±3.81 (PC) – 57.81±4.31(SAD), LDL-C:18.09±2.79(NC) – 36.77±1.60 (PC), and VLDL-C:9.12±0.35(SAD) – 31.59 ± 0.73 (PC). For the other indices, Castelli’s Risk Index I (CR I) ranges between 0.33±0.02 (SAD) – 1.05±0.11(PC), Castelli’s Risk Index II(CR II): 1.40±0.08 (SAD) – 5.08±0.53 (PC), Atherogenic Coefficient (AC):0.39±0.08 (SAD) – 4.08±0.53 (PC), while that of Atherogenic Index of Plasma (AIP) was -0.10±0.02 (SAD) – 0.66±0.06. A closer look at the results revealed that in all instances, TC, TG, LDL-C, VLDL-C indices, CR I, CR II, AC, and AIP decreased significantly (p<0.05) in the LDE, HDE and SAD groups respectively when compared to the positive control group, while HDL increased significantly (p<0.05) relative to same PC group. This finding is further embellished by the percentage protection profile of the plant extracts, which is very high at both high and low doses. Percentage Protection conferred by the plant extracts were 61.76% (low dose) and 79.17% (high dose) respectively, both of which are reasonably favorably comparable to that (90.44%) of the standard antihyperlipidaemic antihypertensive drug. The efficacy of the extract in balancing lipid indices and atherogenic coefficient was as good as that of the standard antihyperlipidaemic antihypertensive drug (Simvastatin), since there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the lipids reduction activities of the extract (particularly the higher dose) compared to that of the standard drug, thus suggesting its potential as antihyperlipidaemic antihypertensive agent. The results of this study have great implications for public health, as they suggest possible positive pharmacological role, therefore pharmacognostic value of Diodia sarmentosa in the search for solutions for hyperlipidaemic-mediated cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension.
Keywords: Diodia sarmentosa, Antihyperlipidaemic Activity, Antihypertensive, Cardiovascular Diseases, Public Health
