EFFECT OF MUNG BEAN AND RED LENTILS DIETARY FIBER (RAW VERSES COOKED) ON THE LIPID PROFILE OF INDUCED HYPERCHOLESTEROLEMIC RATS

Abstract

The study was carried out to evaluate the hypocholesterolemic effect of crude dietary
fiber extracts of raw and cooked (whole) mung bean (Vigna radiata) and red lentils (Lens Culniras).
High fiber diets were prepared using 35 % crude dietary fiber extract of both raw and cooked mung
bean and red lentils. Hypercholesterolemia was induced in 40 sprague dawley male rats, weighing 205-
225 g. The animals were equally divided into 5 groups to study the effect of purified diet AIN-93 M,
raw and cooked mung crude fiber diet, raw and cooked red lentils crude fiber diet on total cholesterol,
very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, high density lipoprotein
cholesterol and triglycerides levels. The rat group induced with hypercholesterolemia was fed on purified diet AIN-93-M and labeled as Group I. Group II comprised of induced hypercholesterolemic rats given raw mung crude fiber diet; whereas Group III consists of induced hypercholesterolemic rats thatwere given cooked mung crude fiber diet, Group IV consisted of hypercholesterolemic rats given rawred lentils crude fiber diet and Group V comprised of hypercholesterolemic rats fed on  cooked red lentils crude fiber diet. The hypercholesterolemic group fed on raw mung bean crude fiber diet had significantly lowered the total cholesterol. Likewise, a decrease in very low-density lipoprotein cholesteroland low-density lipoprotein cholesterol with a higher ratio of high-density      lipoprotein cholesterol was recorded in the same group. The results are of the view that cooking may have slightly reduced the hypocholesterolemic effect of the pulses under study.