Hypolipidemic Effect of Terminalia Arjuna and Guggul on Dyslipidemic Subjects

Abstract

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) such as coronary artery disease and stroke are the leading causes of death in developing countries and are one of the main contributors to disease burden in a population. Dyslipidemia is a major cause of atherosclerosis, a vascular disease affecting blood circulation in the coronary, central, and peripheral arteries. Traditional medicine has been described as one of the surest means to achieve total health care coverage for the world’s population. Present study aims at identifying the medicinal qualities of two selected herbs Terminalia Arjuna and Guggul as the healing force of nature in cardiovascular disease. Out of 40 dyslipidemic males selected from Ajmer city were divided into Control group and Experimental group. Experimental group is further divided into three groups. In the experimental Group A, Arjuna bark capsules were administrated (1 g powder), Group B was given capsule of Guggul (1 g powder) and Group C was administrated with mixed herb capsules (500 mg Arjuna bark and 500 mg Guggul powder). Lipid profile of the dyslipidemic subjects were estimated before and after intervention of the herbal capsules. Arjuna capsule intervention showed higher significant effect in reducing total cholesterol level and LDL cholesterol. Mixed herb capsule showed higher significant effect in reducing triglyceride level. No positive effect of Arjuna, Guggul and mixed herb was seen on HDL cholesterol level after intervention in dyslipidemic subjects. Thus the study recommends more research work to explore the best possible utilization of medicinal potential of these herbs in fighting modern life style disease like hypertension, obesity, Dyslipidemia and CVD.

Keywords: CVD, Dyslipidemia, Arjuna, Guggul, Antioxidants, Anti-inflammatory, Supplementation