Triterpenic Acids Present in Hawthorn Lower Plasma Cholesterol by Inhibiting Intestinal ACAT Activity in Hamsters

Table 1

OA and UA concentrations in the dried hawthorn fruit powder and extracts.

Extraction solvents	Hawthorn powder (g)	Dry extract yield (g)	OA and UA in dry extracts (g/100 g)			Calculated OA + UA in hawthorn powder (g/100 g)
			OA	UA	OA + UA
	I	II			III	(II × III)/I
Heptane	20^a	0.044	1.0	1.6	2.6	0.01
Ethanol	20	0.986	1.5	6.2	7.7	0.38
Aceton	20	0.260	5.4	20.3	25.7	0.33
Ethylacetate	20	0.149	8.1	30.8	38.9	0.29
Dichloromethane	20	0.118	9.0	31.5	40.5	0.24
Dichloromethane	425^b	38.25	0.4	2.6	3.0	0.27

^a For the in vitro experiments, 20 g of dried hawthorn powder was extracted with 100 mL dichloromethane, ethylacetate, acetone, ethanol or heptane, respectively, at room temperature for 1.5 h. The obtained extracts were then dried under nitrogen flow.
^b For the animal study, 425 g dried hawthorn fruit powder was extracted with ethanol followed by dichloromethane (details are described in Section 2). Triterpenic acid concentrations in the extracts were measured by HPLC and data are presented as mean value of two measurements.