Effects of the Composite Beverage Containing Codonopsis pilosula, Astragalus membranaceus, Poria cocos on Lipid Metabolism and Liver Damage

To study the effects of the composite beverage containing Codonopsis pilosula, Astragalus membranaceus, Poria cocos on hypolipidemic effects and fatty liver damage in hyperlipidemic rats, 48 adult male rats were randomly divided into 6 groups, with 8 rats in each group, which were blank control group, model group, simvastatin group, and low, medium, and high dose sample groups of the composite beverage containing Codonopsis pilosula, Astragalus membranaceus, Poria cocos (518, 103, 2072 mg/kg). The blank control group was fed with standard diet, while the other groups were fed with high-fat feed. The blank control group and model group rats were given distilled water, the simvastatin group was given simvastatin solution, and the other three groups were given different doses of the composite beverage for 8 consecutive weeks. After the experiment, the liver, peritesticular fat, and perirenal fat of the rats were separated and weighed, and the liver index, peritesticular fat index, and perirenal fat index of the rats were calculated. The content of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) in blood serum were measured. The liver lesions were detected by using HE staining and oil red staining. The research showed that compared with the model group, the body weight, liver index, perirenal fat index, and peritesticular fat index of rats in each group fed with the composite beverage containing Codonopsis pilosula, Astragalus membranaceus, Poria cocos could significantly decreased (P<0.05, P<0.01), the maximum decrease in body weight was 11.91%, in liver index was 11.81%, in perirenal fat index was 33.33%, and in peritesticular fat index was 31.13%. The content of TC, TG, and LDL-C in serum significantly decreased (P<0.05, P<0.01), while the content of HDL-C significantly increased (P<0.05, P<0.01), and the result values showed a dose correlation, and the high-dose group had the best effect, the content of TC decreased by 27.64%, TG by 36.76%, LDL-C by 30.85% in serum. The content of HLD-C increased by 40.86%, the above results all had extremely significant differences (P<0.01). The levels of AST significantly decreased by 27.35% and the levels of ALT significantly decreased by 48.02% (P<0.01), and hepatocellular steatosis and hepatic lipid droplet deposition in hyperlipidemic rats significantly improved. In summary, the composite beverage containing Codonopsis pilosula, Astragalus membranaceus, Poria cocos had fairly good lipid-lowering effects and liver protective effects.