Abstract

The use of medicinal herbs has been customary in traditional medicine since very long ago and according to the intolerances exhibited by some of the patients for chemical drugs due to the emergence of side effects, the medicinal herbs can be utilized as alternative treatments through adhering to evidence-based medical principles. The current research paper investigates the effects of saffron petal hydroalcoholic extract on the lipid profiles. Thirty Wistar rats were assigned to six groups: a control group and a sham group that received ordinary dietary regime and high cholesterol (2) dietary regime, respectively, and experimental groups one to four that, besides the high cholesterol dietary regime, were also, correspondingly, treated by 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg of their body weights saffron petal hydroalcoholic extract per day and 10 mg/kg of the body weight lovastatin per day. Blood samples were collected of the animals after eight weeks to determine their serum lipid profiles. SPSS (version16) was employed to perform the analysis. The serum levels of cholesterol, triglyceride and LDL-C were found significantly increased in sham group and experimental group three (high cholesterol dietary regime plus 200 mg/kg of the extract) in contrast to the control group (P<0.001). The significance level was found lower in experimental group 1 (high cholesterol regime plus 50 mg/kg of the extract) (P<0.05, P<0.001 and P<0.05, respectively). The serum levels of these three factors and HDL-c were not found significantly different in experimental groups two and four in comparison to the control group. The results are indicative of the favorable effects of saffron petal hydroalcoholic extract, especially in lower dosages, on the regulation and correction of the serum lipid profile.