A preclinical antihyperlipidemic evaluation of Artemisia vulgaris root in diet induced hyperlipidemic animal model

Abstract

Hyperlipidemia is a major cause of atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease (CHD), ischemic cerebrovascular disease and peripheral vascular disease. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the hypolipidemic activity of aqueous root extract of Artemisia vulgaris in cholesterol diet induced hyperlipidemic rats. Rats were randomly divided into five groups each comprising six rats. The study was conducted for two months which included 30 days of feeding period and next 30 days of treatment period. Group I served as normal control, group II, III, IV and V were fed with high-fat diet for 30 days during the feeding period and then the high-fat diet was replaced by standard diet for the next 30 days of treatment period. Artemisia vulgaris extract showed significant serum lipid lowering effects in hyperlipidemic rats which brought down total cholesterol level (C) till 180 9.48, triglycerides (TG) 147.21.28, LDL 126.39.54, VLDL 28.22.26, increased level of HDL 685.19 and Atherogenic Index (AI) 2.631.82 in comparison of diet-induced hyperlipidemic control, total cholesterol 282.23 15.15, triglycerides 243.2 9.52, LDL 209.16 18.36, VLDL 47.56 1.90 , HDL 34.172.312 and Atherogenic Index (AI) 8.2 0.72 at 30 ^th day and hypolipidemic activity of Artemisia vulgaris was compared with rosuvostatin in diet induced hyperlipidemic rats.