A Survey on the effect of psyllium on serum levels of triglycerid and lipoproteins

Nowadays, there is an increasing interest in studying on herbal drugs for decreasing blood levels of lipid and glucose. There is a controversy in studies about the effect of psyllium on hyperlipidemia. In a double-blind, randomized clinical trial, a total of 72 subjects with serum triglyceride between 160 to 200 mg/dl and cholesterol between 130 to190 mg/dl, were randomly allocated into two case and control groups. We administered 5 gram per day psyllium for the case group, and 5 gram of per day cellulose for the control group. After 60 days, levels of serum lipids and glucose were assessed. There was no significant difference in triglyceride levels between the case and control groups; but the serum LDL-cholesterol levels increased in both groups: 161.07 compared to 147.5 mg/dl in psyllium group (P= 0.002) and 156.8 compared to 132.10 mg/dl in control group (P<0.0001), while HDL-cholesterol level decreased only in the control group (48088 compared to 33.34 mg/dl; P<0.0001). Psyllium can decrease LDL-cholesterol level without affecting the serum HDL-cholesterol level.