Lipid-lowering evaluation of cold-pressed Camelina sativa oil

The objective of the present study was to investigate the impact of increasing doses of cold-pressed Camelina saliva oil (CO) with high level of alpha-linolenic acid (56.1%) on plasma and liver lipids as well as on oxidative level of Sprague-Dawley rats fed with high fat diets (HFD) containing 20% fat and 1% cholesterol. The effect of 1.1, 2.2 and 4.4 g/kg b.w. CO were studied with 2.2 g/kg b.w. fish oil as positive control. After six weeks, 4.4 g/kg b.w. CO and 1.1 g/kg b.w. fish oil significantly lowered the increase of body weight gain, liver weight gain, total cholesterol (TC) and total triglyceride (TO) in liver and plasma, (low degree lipoprotein + very low degree lipoprotein)-cholesterol [(VLDL+LDL)-C] and aspartate amino transferase (AST) in plasma resulted from high-fat diets (P<0.05), in which CO acted in a dose-dependent manner. The increase of plasma high degree lipoprotein 3 (HDL(3)) and plasma lipoprotein displacement in agarose gel electrophoresis of high-fat diet fed rats ingested CO also showed that CO could promote the metabolism of HDL subset to miniaturize the HDL particles. Liver protection by CO was further substantiated by the improved liver histological findings in El F D fed rats. However, fish oil and CO did not have effect on decreased antioxidation level resulted from high-fat diets. These data suggest that CO participates in the normal regulation of plasma lipid concentration and cholesterol metabolism in the liver. Thus, Camelina saliva oil containing a high level of alpha-linolenic acid possesses lipid-lowering activity by regulating the blood lipid metabolism and protecting liver function.