No abstract

-Cladosiphon okamuranus is edible brown algae cultured commercially and massively at Okinawa coast. Dietary fiber occupying most of C. okamuranus isn't digested and absorbed by digestive enzymes of human. But it is known to prevent and treat constipation as metabolic disease. This study was to investigate the effects of dietary fiber extracted from C. okamuranus on the damage of liver and the blood cholesterol level in the high fat dietfed rats. The effects were measured by the levels of aspartate aminotransferase (ALT), alanine aminotransferase (AST), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low density lipoprotein (LDL) and high density lipoprotein (HDL) in sera. The levels of ALT, AST, TC, TG and LDL were significantly reduced in the C. okamuranus-treated group compared with the high fat diet group. But HDL level was markedly increased. The results showed that the dietary fiber extracts from C. okamuranus have the inhibitive effects of cholesterol biosynthesis in the high fat diet-fed rats.

Cladosiphon okamuranus is edible brown algae cultured commercially and extensively on the Okinawa coast in Japan. We examined the effects of Cladosiphon okamuranus on the lipid metabolism in high-fat-diet rats. Seven-week-old female SD rats were divided into five groups and fed high-fat diets for 42 days. In addition, Cladosiphon okamuranus was administered orally for 42 days at 95 mg/kg of the body weight of the rats. The effects of lipid metabolism were evaluated by the total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), glutamic pyruvate transaminase (GPT), glutamic oxalacetic transaminase (GOT) levels in sera. The levels of TC, TG, LDL, GPT, and GOT were reduced in the Cladosiphon okamuranus treated group compared with the high-fat diet group. However, the levels of HDL in the Cladosiphon okamuranus treated groups were higher than in the high-fat diet groups. These results demonstrated that Cladosiphon okamuranus had positive effects on lipid metabolism, suggesting Cladosiphon okamuranus could be used as an ingredient in useful, functional products.Key words : Cladosiphon okamuranus, cholesterol, functional products, obesity, obese rat *Corresponding author *Tel : +82-51-999-5466, Fax : +82-51-999-5636 *E-mail : bjha@silla.ac.kr This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.