Improvement in HDL and lowering of LDL blood cholesterol level by feeding dietary chitosan extracted from exoskeleton of freshwater crab Sartoriana spinigera to albino rats.

Shiny E.C. Kachhap^a*& S. Besra^a
a*P.G. Department of Zoology, Ranchi University, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
Received : 19^th January, 2017 ; Revised : 28^th February, 2017

Abstract: Presently, hypercholesterolemia is one of the biggest health issues in human population leading to various cardiovascular diseases. In this experiment, a zootherapeutic medicine, chitosan, was extracted from a freshwater crab, Sartoriana spinigera locally found in Jharkhand and compared with cellulose and a hypolipidemic drug Ezetimibe to see hypocholesterolemic effect on LDL and HDL level of blood cholesterol in hypercholesterolemic albino rats. Experiment was conducted on 15 albino rats for 30 days. They were divided into 3 groups A,B and C and were given respective diets:-Group A (high fat diet+5% cellulose), group B (high fat diet+5% chitosan) and group C (high fat diet+5% hypolipidemic drug Ezetimibe).Blood of rats was collected on initial and final day to measure the level of HDL and LDL all groups. Statistical analysis by Student’s t test between the difference of group A and group B showed that in group B HDL level was increased significantly (p<0.01),whereas analysis between group B and C showed significantly increased concentration of HDL in group B (p<0.05). Statistical analysis for LDL level in blood between group A and B showed that in group B, LDL was decreased significantly (p<0.001), whereas, statistical analysis between group B and C showed significantly decreased LDL level in group B (p<0.001), indicating that chitosan has the capacity to increase HDL (good cholesterol) and decrease LDL (bad cholesterol) in blood and is more potent hypocholesterolemic agent than cellulose and the reference drug in this study.

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