Hypolipidemic and antioxidant activities of avocado fruit pulp on high cholesterol fed diet in rats

Avocado, Persea americana Mill. (Lauraceae) is a widely consumed fruit in many countries for its nutritional and medicinal benefits. In the present study, avocado fruit pulp (AFP) was investigated for its anti-hyperlipidemic and antioxidant activities in Wistar albino rats. Hyperlipidemia in the animal was induced by feeding high cholesterol diet (HCD) for 70 days in standard chow diet. Rats on HCD showed significant increase in serum liver marker enzymes (GOT, GPT, GGT, ALP) and bilirubin levels; cholesterol, Increased low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL-C) and triglycerides (TG) levels in serum were also elevated. Besides, an increase in lipid peroxidative indicator malondialdehyde (MDA) level, there was a decrease in serum HDL-C; nonprotein sulfhydryl (NP-SH) and total protein (TP) in both liver and heart tissues. Treatment with AFP (1 and 2 ml/rat/day, orally) showed significant decrease in serum cholesterol, LDL-C, VLDL-C, TG, glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (GPT), glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and bilirubin levels, while liver and heart MDA was also significantly decreased. After ingestion of AFP, significant increase in non-protein sulfhydryl (NP-SH), total protein (TP) contents in both tissues were observed. Assessment of liver and heart pathology showed that AFP administration caused an improvement in fatty acid changes of the tissues caused by heavy-chain disease (HCD). These results suggest that AFP possesses hypocholesterolemic and antioxidant properties due to its phytoconstituents contents and substantiates its use in folkloric practices to control dyslipidemia.