Safflower seed extract lowers plasma and hepatic lipids in rats fed high-cholesterol diet

Preliminary studies showed that powdered safflower seed lowered the plasma cholesterol concentration in high-fat and high-cholesterol fed rats. These studies were designed to test the hypolipidemic activity of safflower seed extracts prepared with ethanol or hot water. Male rats were fed a high-cholesterol (1%, wt/wt) or high-cholesterol diet supplemented with safflower seed powder (5%, wt/wt; SSP), safflower seed ethanol extract (0.15%, wt/wt; SSE), or safflower seed water extract (0.5%, wt/wt; SSW) for 5 weeks. The safflower seed extracts were supplemented in diets based on 5% raw safflower seeds. All the safflower seed preparations significantly lowered the plasma cholesterol concentration, whereas the plasma triglyceride concentration was only lowered by the supplementation of SSE and SSW. The hepatic total cholesterol contents were significantly lower in the SSW group compared with the control group, whereas the hepatic triglyceride contents were significantly lower in both the SSE and SSW groups compared to control group. Conversely, the hepatic HMGCoA reductase activities were significantly higher in both the SSE and SSW groups compared with the other two groups. Finally, the hepatic ACAT activities were significantly lower in the SSE group compared to all the other groups. Accordingly, these results indicate that the supplementation of SSE or SSW is more effective than SSP in improving the atherogenic risk factors in high-cholesterol fed rats.