Potential Hypolipidemic effects of Propolis in Hyperlipidemic induced male albino rabbits

High fat or cholesterol have been implicated in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. The present study was designed to investigate the possible hypolipidemic effects of propolis on cholesterol fed rabbits and to compare with standard drug available in the market (statin). The rabbits were first made exogeneously hyperlipidemic by giving them high fat diet and cholesterol powder (500mg/kg body weight) in 5ml of coconut oil orally for 15 days and then were administered with drugs like Propolis and statin. In the hyperlipidemic rabbits there were an apparent reduction in the animal body weight and a significant increase in serum total cholesterol (78.67 %), triglyceride (27.24 %), LDL-c (78.56 %) and VLDL-c (38.04 %) with a concomitant non significant decrease in serum HDL-c (25.45 %) . Whereas oral treatment of animals with propolis for about 45 days in a dose of 25mg/Kg body weight lead to significant reduction in the animal body weight as well as in serum total cholesterol (93.61 %), triglyceride (76.91 %), LDL-c (96.4 %) and VLDL-c (75.6 %) with a slightly nonsignificant increase in HDL-c. In conclusion, propolis was found nearly equal in efficacy like statin standard drug in comparison with hyperlipidemic animals on all serum lipid parameters. Thus propolis extract offers promising hypolipidemic effects with no drug related disturbances in safety medications that may be mainly attributed to its potent antiatherosclerotic potential. Further studies will be needed in future in order to determine which one (or more) of its active constituents has the main hypolipidemic effects.