Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, Department of Food Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2010 Mar;50(3):259-67. doi: 10.1080/10408391003626249.
Policosanols (PC) are very long chain aliphatic alcohols derived from the wax constituent of plants. In the early 1990s, researchers at Dalmer Laboratories in La Habana Cuba isolated and produced the first PC supplement from sugarcane wax. The original PC supplement has been approved as a cholesterol-lowering drug in over 25 countries throughout the Caribbean and South America. Cuban studies claim that 1 to 20 mg/day of the original PC supplement are effective at producing significant reductions in total cholesterol (TC) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). These studies also show that PC supplements are potent antioxidants, promote proper arterial endothelial cell function, inhibit platelet aggregation and thrombosis, and serve as effective treatments for intermittent claudication. However, for the most part, those studies reporting therapeutic efficacy of PC were carried out by one research group situated in Cuba. Conversely, research groups outside of Cuba have failed to validate the cholesterol-lowering and antioxidant efficacy of PC. Cuban researchers, however, continue to claim that the efficacy is attributed to the unique purity and composition of the original PC preparation, a mixture not found in PC products used by external research groups. The absence of independent and external studies confirming the therapeutic benefits of PC in disease prevention and treatment raises questions regarding their true efficacy.
多廿烷醇（PC）是一种非常长链的脂肪族醇类物质，来源于植物蜡的组成部分。20 世纪 90 年代初，古巴哈瓦那的 Dalmer 实验室的研究人员从甘蔗蜡中分离并生产出第一个 PC 补充剂。最初的 PC 补充剂已在加勒比海和南美洲的 25 个以上国家被批准为降低胆固醇的药物。古巴的研究声称，每天服用 1 到 20 毫克的原始 PC 补充剂可有效显著降低总胆固醇（TC）和低密度脂蛋白胆固醇（LDL-C）。这些研究还表明，PC 补充剂具有强大的抗氧化作用，可促进适当的动脉内皮细胞功能，抑制血小板聚集和血栓形成，并可有效治疗间歇性跛行。然而，在很大程度上，报告 PC 治疗功效的那些研究是由一个位于古巴的研究小组进行的。相反，古巴以外的研究小组未能验证 PC 的降胆固醇和抗氧化功效。然而，古巴研究人员继续声称，这种功效归因于原始 PC 制剂的独特纯度和组成，这种混合物在外部研究小组使用的 PC 产品中找不到。缺乏独立和外部的研究来证实 PC 在疾病预防和治疗中的治疗益处，这引发了对其真正功效的质疑。
