A Study on Cholesterol Lowering Effect of Pleurotus Sajor-caju Mushroom in Hypercholesterolemic Rats

The present study was conducted to evaluate the hypocholesterolemic effect of Pleurotus sajor-caju mushroom in hypercholesterolemic rats. Rats were fed hypercholesterolemic semi-synthetic diet containing 1 % cholesterol and supplemented with 5 and 10 % dried powder of the mushroom. The feeding experiment was carried out for a period of 7 weeks. The results showed that serum total cholesterol content in experimental group of rats (I & II) fed 5 and 10 % mushroom diet, respectively was reduced significantly by 7.13 and 16.59%, respectively. The reduction of cholesterol was mainly due to decreased cholesterol content in low density lipoproteins (LDL) and very low density lipoprotein (VLDL). No significant change was observed in concentration of serum high-density lipoproteins (HDLs) between control & experimental groups. However, when HDL cholesterol was expressed as per cent of total cholesterol, it increased significantly. The total, LDL and VLDL cholesterol levels in liver were reduced significantly in experimental groups as compared to control group. The liver HDL cholesterol content of experimental groups I & II was increased by 28.2 and 42.73 %, respectively. A significant increase in bulk of feces produced as well as excretion of cholesterol and bile acids in feces was found in rats fed mushroom diet as compared to control group.