The food and medicinal homological resources benefiting patients with hyperlipidemia: categories, functional components, and mechanisms

Hyperlipidemia is a kind of lipid metabolism disease, whose pathogenesis is complex and diverse, mainly related to abnormal glucose and lipid metabolism, as well as insulin resistance and other characteristics. Because of their low toxic and side effects along with clear medicinal effects, the food and medicinal homological resources are widely used in the regulation of blood lipids in recent years. The State Administration for Market Regulation website and various databases have been searched for the use of food and medicinal homological materials in functional food products, the categories and frequency in food and medicinal homological resources, the lipid-lowering active ingredients and their mechanisms. The results showed that 53 kinds of food and medicinal homological resources were used to regulate blood lipids, of which Crataegus pinnatifida Bge., Cassia obtusifolia L., Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn., Morus alba L. and Pueraria lobata (Willd.) Ohwi were used most frequently. The main active ingredients are triterpenes and their glycosides, flavonoids, alkaloids and polysaccharides, etc., they regulated blood lipid levels and cholesterol metabolism by activating AMPK and PPARγ.