Hypolipidemic and antiatherogenesis effect of culinary-medicinal pink oyster mushroom, Pleurotus salmoneostramineus L. Vass. (higher Basidiomycetes), in hypercholesterolemic rats.

The present study was conducted to investigate dietary supplementation of Pleurotus salmoneostramineus fruiting bodies on biochemical and histological effects in hyper- and normocholesterolemic rats. Six-week-old female Sprague-Dawley albino rats were divided into three groups of 10 rats each. Feeding of diet containing a 5% powder of the fruiting bodies of P. salmoneostramineus in hypercholesterolemic rats reduced plasma total cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein, total lipid, phospholipids, and LDL/HDL ratio by 22.55, 51.38, 69.23, 29.67, 16.61, and 65.31%, respectively. The mushroom also significantly reduced body weight in hypercholesterolemic rats. Moreover, it had no adverse effects on plasma albumin, total bilirubin, direct bilirubin, creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, uric acid, glucose, total protein, calcium, sodium, potassium, chloride, inorganic phosphate, magnesium, and enzyme profiles. Feeding mushroom increased total lipid and cholesterol excretion in feces. The plasma lipoprotein fraction, separated by agarose gel electrophoresis, indicated that P. salmoneostramineus significantly reduced plasma β and pre-β-lipoprotein, while it increased α-lipoprotein. A histological study of liver tissues by conventional hematoxylin-eosin and oil red O staining showed normal in mushroom feed hypercholesterolemic rat. This study suggests that the P. salmoneostramineus diet supplement provided health benefits by acting on the atherogenic lipid profile in hypercholesterolemic rats.