ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1663717
Comparison between the protective effect of the orally administered atorvastatin and safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) in hypercholesterolemic male rats
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
- 2Egypt Ministry of Health & Population, Cairo, Egypt
- 3Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt
- 4Menoufia University, Shebeen El-Kom, Egypt
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Hyperlipidemia is correlated with the elevation of cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood that increase the risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks and strokes. This study aimed to test the hypolipidemic activity and other health benefits of atorvastatin and safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L., family Asteraceae) on rats with induced hypercholesterolemia in a four-week study. 24 male albino rats were divided into four groups (n=6). The first group (G1) was given a normal basal diet as a negative control, while the other rats received a high-fat diet with 5% cholesterol. The second group (G2) served as the positive control, receiving no treatment. The third group (G3) received 200 mg/kg body weight safflower aqueous extract, and the 4th group (G4) received 20 mg/kg body weight atorvastatin. The induced hypercholesterolemia significantly raised liver function enzymes, lipid peroxidation (14.9±0.11 mg/dl), total cholesterol (273.3±1.1 mg/dl), triglycerides (223.0±4.1 mg/dl), low-density lipoproteins (204.7±0.9 mg/dl), very low-density lipoproteins (44.6±0.8 mg/dl), troponin, creatine kinase (CK), and adrenaline while decreased antioxidant enzymes, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and vitamin D (11.1±0.5 ng/mL). The liver and heart tissues were also significantly injured by hypercholesterolemia. Administration of atorvastatin and safflower markedly ameliorated the biochemical and histological abnormalities associated with induced hyperlipidemia, restoring them to near-normal levels. Atorvastatin treatment in G4 demonstrated superior efficacy compared to safflower extract in addressing hypercholesterolemia, despite the latter's significant hypolipidemic effect observed in G3.
Keywords: adrenaline, atorvastatin, Hypercholesterolemia, safflower, Troponin, Vitamin D
Received: 11 Jul 2025; Accepted: 29 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 El Rabey, Attia, Bakry, Rezk and Sharfeldin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Haddad A El Rabey, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.