The eects of diets, supplemented with either whole persimmon or phenol-free persimmon, on rats fed cholesterol

The purpose of this study was to compare the hypolipidemic and antioxidant e€ects of two diets in rats fed cholesterol (NOC). The experiment was performed on 3 groups of growing male Wistar rats. In each group there were 12 animals and during 4 weeks they were fed di€erent diets: the control group (CG) fed semipuri®ed diet with 1% of NOC, and two experimental groups (EG1) and (EG2) fed the same diet forti®ed with 7% of whole dry persimmon and 7% of phenol-free dry persimmon, respectively. Before and after the 4 week trial period, in rats of all groups, total cholesterol (TC), LDL-C, HDL-C, tryglicerides (TG) and lipid peroxides (LP) were studied. The results of the experiment showed a statistically signi®cant increase in plasma TC and LDL-C only in CG (P < 0.0005) and EG2 (P < 0.0025). The increase of TC and LDL-C in the EG-1 fed diet, supplemented with whole persimmon, was statistically not signi®cant (P for both< 0.1). Only in EG1was a statistically not signi®cant increase inHDL-C registered (P<0.1). The decrease inHDL-C/TC ratio in this group of rats was minimal (from 0.57 to 0.54). A signi®cant increase of LP was found in all three groups. An increase of LP with the EG2-fed diet, supplemented with phenol-free persimmon, was equal to the increase of LP in CG. For the EG1-fed diet supplemented with whole persimmon, a statistically less signi®cant increase of LP was found (P< 0.05 versus both EG2 and CG). The results of this experiment show that both diets forti®ed with 7% of whole dry persimmon and with 7% of phenol-free dry persimmon improve lipid levels. But only diet supplemented with whole persimmon exerts an antioxidant e€ect. Therefore, the antioxidant e€ect of this fruit is associated mainly with persimmon phenols and not with the persimmon ®bre.# 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.