Comparative Effects of the Leaves of Gongronema latifolium and Vernonia amygdalina Incorporated Diets on the Lipid Profiles of Rats

The hypolipidaemic effects of the leaves of Gongronema latifolium (GL) and Vernonia amygdalina (VA) diet preparations on the lipid profile of rats were compared. The rats were fed for 28 days on diet specially formulated to contain 5%, 15% and 30% by weight of the leaves of each plant respectively while the control group was fed standard rat diet. The serum total cholesterol (TC), triacylglycerol (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low- density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were determined on blood samples collected on the 28th day. The results show that the VA diet induced a significantly lower serum total cholesterol level at the 15% and 30% concentrations relative to the GL diet preparation. The results also show that there was no significant difference between the effects of GL and VA diet preparations at the various levels of treatments. The comparison of the effects of the two diet preparations show that VA produced higher levels of HDL-C compared to GL which was significant at 5% and 15% concentrations respectively. It appears from our results that VA diet preparation may have better hyperlipidaemic effect than GL diet preparation. Therefore, VA may have better therapeutic promise in preventing lipid related pathologies compared to GL