Cassia seed is a medicinal plant with a long history in China. The earliest "Shennong Materia Medica" listed cassia seed as a top-grade product, saying that it "can cure various eye diseases, benefit the eyes for a long time, and lighten the body." cassia seed tastes sweet, bitter and salty, and has good effects of reducing blood fat, blood pressure, oxidation resistance, anti-aging and so on. Modern pharmacological studies have shown that cassia seed can inhibit the increase of serum cholesterol and atherosclerotic plaque, and has a significant effect on lowering blood lipids. It is one of the drug and food homologous substances published by the Ministry of health. The lipid-lowering effect of cassia seed is mainly attributed toHesperidin。
Low density lipoprotein (LDL) is an important form of cholesterol in human serum. The low density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) located on the cell membrane absorbs the low density lipoprotein in the blood and plays a very important role in regulating the metabolism of low density lipoprotein and maintaining the normal concentration of cholesterol in the blood. Hmg2coa reductase, a key rate limiting enzyme that inhibits cholesterol synthesis, can reduce the concentration of cholesterol in cells, thus initiating the expression of LDLR gene and indirectly reducing the concentration of LDL in blood. In addition, direct activation of LDLR gene expression to absorb LDL in blood is considered to be a better way to reduce LDL concentration in blood. It has been found that hesperidin can enhance the transcription level of low density lipoprotein receptor gene and reduce hyperlipidemia caused by fat emulsion, especially in reducing serum TC and LDL2C .
To some extent, the use of effective lipid-lowering drugs can prevent and treat cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. At present, the long-term use of commonly used lipid-lowering drugs such as statins and Bates can produce certain toxic effects on the liver. Therefore, we should look for safe and effective blood-lowering drugs Lipid drugs are a hot spot of medical researchers. Previous studies found that the toxic effect of hesperidin was relatively small. The oral dosage of hesperidin in mice was 400 times that of Cassia in clinical adults. After 7 days of observation, no related toxicity was found. These results show that the hesperidin is expected to be developed into a safe and effective new lipid-lowering drug.