The global prevalence of hyperlipidaemia is increasing rapidly and high dietary fat intake is a major risk factor for developing hyperlipidaemia. An in-vivo biological investigation was carried out on ethanolic extract of Momordica charantia, a plant belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae for the evaluation of antihyperlipidemic activity and serum uric acid reducing potential. In our study, 25 healthy male mice were selected randomly and grouped into 5 groups (5 animals in each group). Lipid and uric acid profile were estimated after 21 days of treatment by using the enzymatic colourimetric GPO-PAP method. Results showed that ethanolic extract of M. charantia at a dose of 200 mg/kg body weight showed significant (p < 0.05) cholesterol and triglyceride level reduction profile when co-administrated with 20% fat and normal feed respectively. Atorvastatin was used as standard. Data from pathological examination showed that the average weight of the heart of the mice was normal for every group when compared with control. Gr-2 (normal and extract feed) showed significant (p ˂ 0.05) increased of liver and kidney weight rather than experimental groups; however, these values were lower than the values for the control group. Uric acid level determination revealed that the ethanolic extract of M. charantia reduced serum uric acid level both in experimental groups (Gr-2 and Gr-3). Thus a considerable correlation was found between serum uric acid reducing potentials of the present plant extract with a lipid-lowering profile. This plant can be further investigated thoroughly as a potential source of chemically interesting and biologically important drug candidates.
Keywords: Molecular biology.