European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

EVALUATION OF THE HYPOLIPIDEMIC EFFECT OF COCOS NUCIFERA DRY FRUIT ENDOCARP (SHELL)

U. S. Jijith*

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Plant principles are considered a good source for identification of new drug molecules Objective: We evaluated the hypolipidemic effect of Cocos nucifera dry fruit endocarp (shell) Moreover, this study may lead to new molecules in the drug discovery process. This study helps to justify the claims in folklore use of coconut endocarp as a hypolipidemic agent. Materials and Methods: The liver is the source of enzyme which is responsible for cholesterol biosynthesis in the body. Because of two reasons, we selected chicken liver instead of rat liver for this study First reason was to avoid the ethical issue and the second reason was its easy availability. Therefore, we preferred chicken liver homogenate for the present study. as a source of enzyme for in vitro biosynthesis of cholesterol and also include hot water extract of Cocos nucifera as test substance. Organic mixture n-hexane and isopropyl alcohol were used for lipid extraction from chicken liver. In order to make up the final volume of the test solution for estimation cholesterol content with Isopropyl alcohol was used. Results: These studies showed the dose-dependent inhibition of cholesterol biosynthesis when compared with standard drug as atorvastatin. Conclusions: From the result, we conclude hot extract of Cocos nucifera showed a significant hypolipidemic effect when compared with the standard drug. A further detailed study is required for the identification of the fraction responsible for this action produced by the Cocos nucifera.

Keywords: n-hexane, HMG CoA, cholesterol, Isopropyl alcohol, dry fruit of endocarp cocos nucifera.