American Journal of Food Science and Nutrition 2018; 5(3): 58-65 http://www.aascit.org/journal/ajfsn ISSN: 2375-3935 Pomegranate Peels Extract Improves Plasma Lipid Profiles in Triton-WR-1339-Induced Hyperlipidemic Mice and Attenuates Lipoprotein Oxidation Mohamed Harnafi, Ilham Touiss, Saloua Khatib, Oussama Bekkouch, Hicham Harnafi, Souliman Amrani * Laboratory of Biochemistry and Biotechnologies, University Mohamed I, Oujda, Morocco Email address * Corresponding author Citation Mohamed Harnafi, Ilham Touiss, Saloua Khatib, Oussama Bekkouch, Hicham Harnafi, Souliman amrani. Pomegranate Peels Extract Improves Plasma Lipid Profiles in Triton-WR-1339-Induced Hyperlipidemic Mice and Attenuates Lipoprotein Oxidation. American Journal of Food Science and Nutrition. Vol. 5, No. 3, 2018, pp. 58-65. Received: February 27, 2018; Accepted: April 2, 2018; Published: May 30, 2018 Abstract: This study was undertaken to investigate the hypolipidemic and anti-lipoprotein oxidation activities of an aqueous extract from pomegranate peels using Triton WR-1339-induced hyperlipemic mice as experimental model. Hyperlipidemia was developed by intraperitoneal injection of Triton at a dose of 200 mg/kg body weight. The animals were divided into three groups of eight mice each: normolipidemic control group (NCG), hyperlipidemic control group (HCG) and pomegranate peels extract treated group (PTG). After 10 h treatment, Triton caused a significant increase in plasma lipid parameters (total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL-cholesterol, Atherogenic index and LDL/HDL ratio). However, the administration of pomegranate peels extract significantly reduced the elevated plasma lipid profile induced by triton injection. Although no significant change of HDL-cholesterol levels was noticed after treatment. Furthermore, the aqueous pomegranate peels extract showed a significant ameliorative action on elevated atherogenic index (AI) and LDL/HDL-C ratios. On the other hand, the extract showed effective antiradical activity (CI 50 =3.67±0.06 µg/ml) against DPPH and significantly protects lipoproteins obtained from hyperlipidemic mice against copper induced oxidation in vitro (P<0.001). The extract contains 394.21±4.55 mg/g total phenolics, 309.27±4.13 mg/g tannins and 67.33±1.26 mg/g flavonoids. This finding indicates that pomegranate peels may contain polar products able to lower plasma lipid concentrations and might be beneficial in treatment of hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis prevention. Keywords: Hypocholesterolaemia, Hypotriglyceridaemia, Atherogenic Index, Anti-lipoprotein Oxidation, Pomegranate Peels, Triton WR-1339, Mice 1. Introduction Many epidemiological and experimental studies have shown that the hypercholesterolemia and oxidative stress could contribute to the development and progression of atherosclerosis and related cardiovascular diseases which are the most common cause of death in the world [1, 2]. Indeed, a number of clinical trials have demonstrated that the increase in plasma low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL- C) levels plays a key role in the early development of atherosclerosis. However, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) is an anti-atherogenic parameter [3, 4]. On the other hand, triglycerides represent also a potential risk factor of atherosclerosis especially in diabetic individuals [5]. The logical strategy for management of atherosclerosis and prevention of the incidence of cardiovascular disease events is to target hyperlipidemia by drugs and dietary intervention [6]. For this purpose, efforts to develop effective and safety hypolipidaemic drugs have led to discovery of natural products and have stimulated the search for new lipid- lowering agents especially from foods, food byproducts and medicinal plants. In Morocco, as in many developing countries, most hyperlipidemic individuals use folk medicine to treat