Hypocholesterolemic effect of Terminalia chebula fruit (Myrobalan) in mice.

Cholesterol fed mice were administered powdered myrobalan, the fruit of Terminalia chebula, to evaluate its antiatherogenic activity. Male mice were fed a diet containing 1% cholesterol with or without myrobalan for 100 days. The cholesterol containing diet fed to mice caused increased food intake, body weight, serum cholesterol, triglyceride, thickening of the walls of aorta and shrinkage in its lumen (group 2) . The oral administration of myrobalan to mice on atherogenic diet successfully reversed these effect (group 3). However, the food intake was observed to be high as compared to the control animals. Control animals (group 1) received only the vehicle. The results suggest that myrobalan has hypocholesterolemic effect in animals fed with atherogenic diet.