The Pleasant Bitter Taste of an Artichoke May Reduce Your Cholesterol

Artichoke for Cholesterol Reduction

The artichoke has strong choleretic activity (promotes bile secretion in the liver), and choleretics increase the excretion of cholesterol and decrease the manufacture of cholesterol in the liver.The pleasant bitter taste of the artichoke is due mostly to a plant chemical called cynarin, which is found in highest concentration in the leaves of the plant. European scientists first discovered cynarin’s ability to reduce cholesterol in the 1970′s. A compound found in artichoke called luteolinis is also believed to assist with reducing LDL cholesterol. In a 50-day double-blind study, thirty patients received 500 milligrams of pure cynarin per day and had an average 20 percent reduction in total cholesterol along with an average 15 percent reduction in triglycerides compared to a placebo group.

A 6 week double blind, placebo controlled clinical trial of 143 patients has demonstrated the effectiveness of artichoke leaf extract (ALE) for lowering LDL cholesterol. The decrease of total cholesterol in the group that received the extract was 18.5% compared to 8.6% in for the placebo group. LDL cholesterol decrease in the ALE group was 22.9% and 6.3% for placebo. LDL cholesterol/HDL cholesterol ratio showed a decrease of 20.2% in the ALE group and 7.2% in the placebo group.