Abstract
Plants are a major source of substances with therapeutic abilities. However, only a little number of plants around the world had been phytochemically examined. Hypocholesterolemic and antioxidant activity of Persea americana leaves methanolic extract (PALE) was assessed in this research. Hypercholesterolemia was induced by feeding the animals diets enrich with cholesterol (2%) for four weeks. Fifty male albino rats had been distributed into five equivalent groups. Group 1 was held as a non-treated group (negative control) Group 2, which was held as a hypercholestrolemic group (positive control) (cont. (+), groups (3), (4) and (5) received orally Atorvastatine (AT) (40 mg/ kg), PALE in doses of twenty and forty mg/kg/day respectively, for 4 weeks. At the last day, blood was collected for biochemical analysis from all groups. The heart was also examined histopathologically. The results illustrated that the PALE significantly decreased serum levels of lipid profile, total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), liver enzymes and lipid peroxidation (MDA) but there were an increased in the antioxidant enzymes of hypercholesterolemic rats compared to control rats. There was also an improvement in histopathological changes observed in the heart of hypercholesterolemic rats. Therefore, the administration of PALE has antioxidant and anti-hypercholesterolemic effects on hypercholesterolemic rats.