Abstract

Poorly controlled diabetes has been implicated in lipoprotein abnormalities and hypertriglyceridemia in both human and experimental animals, which increase the risk of artherogenicity. The effect of annona muricata seed extract was studied in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats for 30 days in order to evaluate its anti-atherogenic property by investigating lipid profile malondialdehyde and histology of the aorta. The animals were divided into four groups (I-IV). Groups II-IV received a single intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (65 mg/kg) dissolved in a citrate buffer (pH 4.5). Group I (control) received citrate buffer only. Groups III and IV received 500 and 750 mg/kg of extract orally, whereas group I and II received rat chow.  Result showed that treatment with high dose of extract (750 mg/kg) significantly increased anti-atherogenic percentage (70.7 %), whereas total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol, triglycerides and malondialdehydewere significantly reduced after treatment with 500 and 750 mg/kg respectively. Low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) was significantly elevated. Histological assessment of the aorta showed widely dilated, moderately thickened wallin extract treated groups. Data showed that biochemical parameters were greatly improved without significant effect on endothelial thickness.

Key words: Annona muricata, streptozotocin, malondialdehyde, lipid profile, anti-atherogenic index.