African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 5 (13), pp. 1263-1266, 3 July 2006   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2006 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Responses of plasma lipids to edible mushroom diets in albino rats

Oyetayo, F.L

Department of Biochemistry, University of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. E-mail: Ovounad@yahoo.com.

Accepted 8 June, 2006

The potentials of two tropical edible mushrooms: Pleurtotus tuber-regium and Termitomycetes clypeatus  in altering the plasma levels of some lipids in male albino rats fed high fat diets were investigated. Rats were randomly assigned to diet containing 20% fat, P. tuber-regium diet and T. clypeatus diet. Total body weight gain of rats fed mushroom diets were not significantly different (P>0.05) from one another. After a 28-day feeding trial, plasma total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides concentrations were found to be significantly lower (P<0.05) than control while high density lipoprotein cholesterol were significantly higher (P<0.05). The implications of these findings highlight the hypolipidemic properties of the two tropical edible mushrooms.

Key words: Pleurotus tuber-regium, Termitomycetes clypeatus, lipoproteins, hypolipidemic property.