Prophylactic and curative effects of barley and its bran against hyperlipidemia in albino rats

The aim of this study was to investigate the prophylactic and curative effects of barley and ita？？s bran against hyperlipidemia in albino rats. A total of 88 adult male albino rats a？？swiss straina？？ weighting about 80-100g were used in 2 main experiments. (1) The prophylactic effect of barley and bran against hyperlipidemia for 8 weeks and (2) The curative effect of barley and bran for 8 weeks after induction of hyperlipidemia (using cholesterol and cholic acid). The data revealed that there was an increase in the levels of serum total lipids, total cholesterol, triglycerides, ALT, AST, ALP and LDH, while HDL-cholesterol level was decreased after the induction of hyperlipidemia. These results suggest that barley and bran may evoke different lipidaemic responses and that barley bran has more favorable effect on blood lipids than the whole barley. Results were compared with those of Atorvastatin, a standard orally effective hypolipidemic agent