An hydroalcoholic extract of Curcuma longa lowers the apo B/apo A ratio - Implications for atherogenesis prevention

It is generally accepted that free-radical induced blood lipid peroxidation and especially peroxidized LDL play a central role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and related cardiovascular disease. Moreover, recent resear ch highlights the key contribution of apolipoprotein B (apo B) to atherogen esis as the main inductor of one of its earlier steps, i.e. macrophage prol ipheration. This has led us to investigate the apo B response to a very eff ective phenolic lipid-antioxidant, namely an hydroalcoholic extract of Curc uma longa, which according to our previous work does not show any toxic eff ects and decreases the levels of blood lipid peroxides, oxidized lipoprotei ns and fibrinogen. The present study shows that a daily oral administration of the extract decreases significantly the LDL and apo B and increases the HDL and apo A of healthy subjects. This and recent data on the increased a nti-atherogenic action of the physiological antioxidant tocopherol in the p resence of phenolic co-antioxidants (which eliminate the tocopheroxyl radic al), justifies planned clinical research to test the usefulness of the curc uma extract as a co-antioxidant complement to standard treatments to preven t or retard atherosclerosis. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.