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Abstract

The effect of shallot extract on blood lipid levels and erythrocyte shape has been studied in rabbits. Hypercholesterolemia was induced by feeding egg yolk 12.5 g per day for 4 weeks. These rabbits were then divided into 3 groups and were fed with egg yolk alone as control group, egg yolk plus clofibrate 75 mg per day and egg yolk plus 50 g of fresh shallot extract per day respectively. Blood samples were collected from the ear artery every two weeks for evaluating lipid levels and studying morphology of erythrocytes. The abnormal erythrocyte shape (crenation) was strikingly observed in all groups after four weeks of egg yolk feeding with good correlation to lipid levels (r = 0.9, p less than 0.001). The number of crenated erythrocytes decreased continuously by shallot extract from the second week until the eighth week of treatment. This restoring effect could not be seen in the control and clofibrate groups. Lipids levels in all 3 groups did not decrease significantly. This leads to the assumption that there might be some factors other than the lipid-lowering-effect in shallot extract that protect the erythrocyte membrane from deterioration due to high plasma lipid levels.