Abstract:An animal model of preventive hyperlipidemia was used to investigate the hypolipidemic activity of polysaccharides extracted from yacon. Body weight and the levels of serum total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were measured in mice with or without yacon polysaccharide treatment. The results showed that polysaccharides from yacon had no obvious effect on mouse body weight. The crude polysaccharides and pure polysaccharides remarkably decreased the serum TC, TG, and LDL-C levels in hyperlipidemic mice (p<0.01). Pure polysaccharides clearly increased the serum HDL-C levels (p<0.05) and the hepatic TG and TC levels (p<0.01) in mice. The results showed that the polysaccharides from yacon clearly inhibited the blood lipid level elevations caused by a high fat diet, and the pure polysaccharides had better effect than the crude polysaccharides. Additionally, the hypoglycemic activity of yacon polysaccharides was investigated using a mouse model of hyperglycemia. The result showed that the low- and medium-dose groups of crude polysaccharides from yacon decreased fasting blood glucose levels significantly (p<0.05), demonstrating that the polysaccharides from yacon have a hypoglycemic effect in vivo.
