Abstract
BackgroundThymus atlanticus is an endemic plant of the Mediterranean region, which has been used in the Moroccan mountain area to treat several diseases. This study aimed to investigate the effect of polyphenol, flavonoid, and saponin fractions derived from this plant on acute and chronic hyperlipidemia in male albino mice.ResultsThe results indicated that the injection of Triton WR-1339 (20 mg/100 g body weight (B.wt.)) and 6-week administration of a high-fat diet (which is an 81.8% standard diet supplemented with 2% cholesterol, 16% lard, and 0.2% cholic acid) significantly increased plasma total cholesterol, triglycerides and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), but did not affect high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels in mice. Administration of a single dose (2 mg/kg B.wt.) of polyphenol, flavonoid, or saponin fractions significantly suppressed the effect of Triton injection on plasma total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL-C. In addition, the supplementation of the high-fat diet with polyphenol fraction (2 mg/kg B.wt./day) prevented the increase of total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL-C, and effectively increased HDL-C level when compared to mice feeding only the high-fat diet.ConclusionIn conclusion, phenolic compounds from Thymus atlanticus possess a significant hypocholesterolemic and hypotriglyceridemic effects and, therefore, could have an important role in the management of dyslipidemia.
Highlights
Thymus atlanticus is an endemic plant of the Mediterranean region, which has been used in the Moroccan mountain area to treat several diseases
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide [1]. These diseases are related to several risk factors especially dyslipidemia, which is a metabolic disorder that is manifested by elevated levels of plasma total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC), along with a reduced level of high-density lipoprotein
The results showed that rosmarinic acid was the predominant phenolic acid quantified in all fractions (Table 1)
Summary
Thymus atlanticus is an endemic plant of the Mediterranean region, which has been used in the Moroccan mountain area to treat several diseases. Taking into account that lipid-lowering drugs are the main strategy in treating atherosclerosis and that their side effects are important [7, 8, 10], the search for new hypolipidemic drugs with fewer side effects has drawn great attention in recent years [11, 12] In this context, some plants have been studied for their lipid-lowering effect in animal and human models [12, 13]. Thymus atlanticus (T. atlanticus) is an endemic herb of Morocco, which has been found to possess potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anticoagulant proprieties [17, 18] These activities are related to its high polyphenols content [17, 19]. It was reported that the presence of various active saponins in Thymus species [22]
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