Beneficial Health Effects of Fennel Seeds (Shamar) on Male Rats Feeding High Fat-Diet
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- Category: Vol. 80, March 2012
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Beneficial Health Effects of Fennel Seeds (Shamar) on Male Rats Feeding High Fat-Diet,AMR A. REZQ
Abstract
Fennel has been known since antiquity as a medicinal and aromatic herb, it commonly used in household remedy for various medicinal purposes. The present study was con-ducted to investigate the effect of beneficial health effects of fennel seeds on feeding rats with high fat-diet. Histopatho-logical changes of aorta, heart and liver were examined. Thirty five male albino rats of Sprague-Dawley strain weighing 200±5g were used. Animals were divided into five groups of seven rats each: group (1) fed on the basal diet and kept as a negative control group; group (2) fed on high fat–diet and kept as positive control group; groups (3), (4) and (5) fed on high fat diets supplemented with three different levels of fennel seeds (5, 10 and 15%, respectively. The present results revealed that rats fed on high fat-diet only (positive control group) had significant (at p<0.05) increase in serum TL, TG, TC, LDL-C, VLDL-C, AST, ALT, ALP and MDA concentra-tions, and significant decrease in serum HDL-C level as well as significant decrease in HDL-C/LDL-C ratio value and serum activity of CAT, GPX and SOD enzymes as compared to rats fed on basal diet only (negative control group). High fat-diet supplemented with the three different levels of fennel seeds significantly improved serum levels of TL, TG, TC, LDL-C, VLDL-C, AST, ALT, ALP and MDA, and significant raise in serum HDL-C level, values of HDL-C/LDL-C ratio and improve activities of CAT, GPX and SOD enzymes compared to the positive control group. Histopathological investigation showed vaculations of tunica media and narrow-ing in the lumen of aorta sections and congestion of cardiac blood vessel as well as fatty change of hepatocytes in positive control rats. Vaculations of tunica media in aorta sections and fatty changes of hepatocytes were showed in rats fed high fat-diet supplemented with 5% of fennel seeds. Slight thick-ening in the wall of aorta sections was showed in rats treated with 10% fennel seeds, whereas, other sections showed ap-parent normal histological structure. Its liver sections had small vacuoles in the cytoplasm hepatocytes. Liver sections of treated rats with 15% fennel seeds showed small vacuoles in the cytoplasm of some hepatocytes and other sections revealed apparent normal hepatocytes. There were no histo-logical changes in heart sections of all treated rats with fennel seeds and in aorta of rats treated with 15% fennel seeds. In conclusion, the present study revealed that fennel seeds improve dyslipidaemia by improving lipid profile, cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol, and decrease the risk of chronic heart diseases by increasing level of HDL-C as well as enhancing activities of antioxidant enzymes.