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

Background: 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. Methods: 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. Results: 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