Abstract
<p>Changes in diet, physical inactivity and stress contribute to obesity, cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis. Literature shows that bioactive compounds may result in benefits to human health. The aim of this study was to evaluate the glycemic, lipid profile and atherogenic indices of Wistar rats treated with <em>Mentha piperita</em> and <em>Tamarindus indica</em> juice. Animals received food and water <em>ad libitum </em>and were divided into 3 groups: control group (G1) that received 0.5 mL of water twice daily; <em>Mentha </em>group (G2) treated with 0.5 mL of mint juice and group treated with <em>Tamarindus indica </em>juice (G3), that received 0.5 mL of tamarind juice twice daily for 40 days. Groups G1, G2 and G3 received the drinks by intragastric rout. After this period the animals were sedated with sodium pentobarbital for blood collection and evaluation of the biochemical profile: total cholesterol, HDL-c, LDL-c, triglycerides and glucose. Atherogenic indexes were also calculated. The results showed a reduction of total cholesterol, LDL-c, triglyceride, body weight and atherogenic indices; and increase in the levels of HDL-c. We may suggest that the use of mint and tamarind juice can positively affect the biochemical parameters and reduce the atherogenic indexes of Wistar rats.</p>
Highlights
Eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle in modern societies are associated to a number of risk factors that favor the development of diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) that are the main causes of death worldwide
Johari et al [22] evaluated the extract of M. piperita in rats and postulate that compounds as taurine, betaine, alanine, glycine and L-leucine are related to the hypocholesterolemic effects
Our study showed that animals treated with mint and tamarind present significant decrease of Atherogenic Coefficient (AC), Cardiac Risk Ratio 1 (CCR1) and Cardiac Risk Ratio 2 (CCR2), indicating that these plants reduce the risk factors for metabolic diseases possibly due to the presence of anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds [15,16, 38,39]
Summary
Eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle in modern societies are associated to a number of risk factors that favor the development of diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) that are the main causes of death worldwide. (Fabaceae family) has numerous medicinal properties, with an emphasis on antioxidant, lipidlowering, hypoglycemic, anti-inflammatory effects. In addition it may perform antimicrobial effect and control of satiety, it plays a potential role in the treatment or prevention of obesity and other chronic associated diseases [9,10,11,12,13,14]
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