Research Article Effect of Centella asiatica on Oxidative Stress and Lipid Metabolism in Hyperlipidemic Animal Models

Copyright © 2014 Yun Zhao et al.This is an open access article distributed under theCreativeCommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Hyperlipidemia andmany othermetabolic diseases are related to oxidative stress.Centella asiatica is a traditional Chinesemedicine whose antioxidant effect in vitro has been reported. We are interested in whether it possesses this effect in vivo and hence modulates lipid metabolism. Therefore, experiments were carried out on mice and golden hamsters regarding its antioxidant and hypolipidemic effect.We observed that a fraction (CAF3) of the ethanol extract (CAE) ofCentella asiatica had a cholesterol decrease of 79 % and a triglyceride decrease of 95 % in acute mice model, so CAF3 was further investigated in high-fat-fed hamster model. It was shown that CAF3 increased SOD and GSH-Px activities and decreased MDA level, and it also improved TC, TG, LDL-C, HDL-C, AST, and ALT levels. L-CAT and SR-BI gene expression in hamsters were increased. Taken together, our data suggest that the CAF3 fraction of Centella asiatica has antioxidant and hypolipidemic properties. 1