A study on composition and hypolipidemic effect of dietary fibre from some plant foods.

Dietary fibre content of foods namely, khejri beans (Prsopsis cinceria), peepalbanti (Ficus religiosa), barbanti (Ficus bengalensis), gullar (Ficus glomerata) and teent (Capparis decidua) varied from 38.5% to 55.7%. Cellulose and lignin were predominating constituents in peepalbanti, barbanti and gullar; hemicellulose in teent and pectin in khejri beans. Fibre from all these plant foods, fed at the 10% dietary level to rats, induced a greater resistance to hyperlipidemia than cellulose. Teent had the most pronounced hypocholesterolemic effect which appeared to operate through increased fecal excretion of cholesterol as well as bile acids. Dietary hemicellulose showed a significant negative correlation with serum and liver cholesterol and a significant positive correlation with fecal bile acids. The dietary fibre influenced total lipids, cholesterol, triglycerides and phospholipids of the liver to varying extents.