Abstract

Development of novel natural dietary adjunct/agent with significant therapeutic effects on metabolic disease conditions such as obesity and heart disease raises concern in recent times. We studied chronic toxicity of the combined active ingredients present in the sesame leaves and their interaction on the fasting serum lipid profiles with their ratios in thirty adult male non-obese Sprague Dawley (SD) rats. Such that, both treated groups received 14.0 and 28.0 mg/kg body weight doses of aqueous leaves extract ofSesamum radiatum respectively on a daily basis via gastric gavage, while, the control received equal volume of normal saline daily for six weeks. Significant (P < 0.05) weight loss observed in the treated groups was associated with significant (P < 0.05) reductions in both serum cholesterol and triglycerides (TG). The effect on the serum lipoprotein cholesterol components and ratios were significant in a dose related manner, such that increase in HDL accompanied a corresponding decrease in both LDL and LDL/HDL ratio. In addition, to increased in TG/HDL ratio. However, no significant differences in the relative reduction level of VLDL and triglycerides in the treated groups were found compared to control. Thus, LDL/HDL ratio is significantly a better indicator than the TG/HDL ratio in assessing the impact of sesame treatment with evidence of weight loss and hypolipidaemia especially in hypertensive heart diseases.

Key words: Aqueous extract, GC/MS, hypolipidaemia, rats, weight loss.