EFFECT OF SILYMARIN AND SILIBININ-PHOSPHATIDYLCHOLINE COMPLEX ON PLASMA AND LIPOPROTEIN CHOLESTEROL, AND OXIDATION OF LDL IN RATS FED ON HIGH CHOLESTEROL DIET SUPPLEMENTED WITH CURRANT OIL

Abstract

This work was aimed to investigate the currant oil-induced modulation of antihypercholesterolemic and LDLantioxidant effects of silymarin (SM), the extract from Silybum marianum L. containing silibinin as the mainflavonolignan, and of better bioavailable silibinin-phosphatidylcholine complex (SPC) in rats fed on high-cholesterol(HC) high-fat diet. Feeding of rats on HC-diet supplemented with 10 % of currant oil (from Ribes nigrum L.)containing polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA, 61.1% of n–6 and 15.4 % of n–3) and lower amounts of saturated(SFA, 7.7%) and monounsaturated (MUFA, 14.3%) fatty acids caused a significant decrease in plasma cholesterolassociated with a mild decrease in VLDL-C and an increase in HDL-C, when compared to rats fed on HC-diet with10 % of lard fat containing low amounts of PUFA (7.7% of n–6 and 0.7 % of n–3) and higher amounts of SFA(42.7%) and MUFA (47.5%). However, currant oil feeding led to the increased oxidizability of LDL. Silymarin, butnot SPC, was effective in prevention of development of dietary induced hypercholesterolemia in the both dietaryfats with slightly better result in diet containing the currant oil. On the other hand, SPC supressed more effectivelythan silymarin LDL oxidizability. The results suggest that antihypercholesterolemic effect of SM in rats fed on HCdietis improved by dietary currant oil, but the currant oil induces an increased oxidizability of LDL. This can besupressed by improvement of bioavailability of silibinin, as shown here for silibinin-phosphatidylcholine complex.