African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (21), pp. 2428-2433, 5 November 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Weight reduction with improvement of serum lipid profile and ratios of Sesamum radiatum leaves diet in a non-obese Sprague Dawley rats

Lukeman A. J. Shittu¹*, Munir A. Bankole ², Olufemi A. Ogundipe³, A.K. Falade⁴,

Remilekun K. Shittu⁵, Marian N. Bankole⁶, Titilade A. Ahmed⁷, Tayo A.O.⁸, Oladapo A. Ashiru¹

¹Department of Anatomy, Lagos State University College of Medicine, P.M.B. 21266, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria.

²Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, College of Medicine, University of Lagos/Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-araba, Lagos, Nigeria.

³Department of Biochemistry, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.

⁴Department of Chemical Pathology, College of Medicine/ Lagos State  University, Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos Nigeria.

⁵Medical Microbiology Unit, Bolomedics Laboratories, Egbeda, Lagos, Nigeria.

⁶Diarrhea Unit, Microbiology Division, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria.

⁷Department of Microbiology, Drug Quality Control Laboratory/Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria.

⁸Department of Obstetric and Gynaecology, Lagos State University College of Medicine/ Lagos State   University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: drlukemanjoseph@yahoo.com.

Accepted 27 September, 2007

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 of Sesamum 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.