Effects of extraction solvents of dietary plants on lipid lowering activity

The present study aims to investigate the effects of five dietary plants including Azadirachta indica A. Juss. var. siamensis Valeton (flowers), Bombax ceiba Linn (pollen), Citrus hystrix DC (leaves), Polygonum odoratum Lour (leaves), and Solanum torvum Sw (fruits) on activity of pancreatic lipase, micellar cholesterol solubilization and bile acids binding. Two different organic solvents (methanol and ethanol) and distilled water (H2O) were used for plants extraction. Crude extracts in different solvents can inhibit pancreatic lipase activity especially, the ethanolic extracts of P. odoratum which exhibited the strongest activity with IC50 value of 6.04 mg/mL. Aqueous extract of P. odoratum reduced cholesterol solubility by approximately 86%. Ethanolic extract of S. torvum had the highest ability to bind to taurodeoxycholic acid upto 97%. Ethanolic and methanolic extracts of P. odoratum bound to taurocholic acid 75% and glycodeoxycholic acid 40%, respectively. These findings suggest that lipid lowering activity of these plants were distinguished by organic solvents and water extraction. Key words: Dietary plant, cholesterol, pancreatic lipase, micelles solubility, bile acid binding