Effect of ileal bypass and alfalfa on hypercholesterolaemia.

Experiments are described which were designed to find out how alfalfa prevents hypercholesterolaemia in rabbits. It was found that rabbits with shortened small intestine (ileal bypass) required less alfalfa to prevent blood serum cholesterol elevation than rabbits with normal length of gut and that rabbits with ileal bypass absorbed less cholesterol than normal rabbits. It was found that rabbits receiving 600 mg. of cholesterol daily required more alfalfa than those receiving 300 mg. to prevent hypercholesterolaemia. The lower amount of alfalfa required to prevent a rise in the blood serum cholesterol in rabbits with shortened small intestine could be due to decreased ability to absorb cholesterol from the intestinal lumen. The observation that more alfalfa was required to prevent a blood serum cholesterol rise when rabbits received higher doses of cholesterol tends to support the hypothesis that alfalfa prevents hypercholesterolaemia by forming unabsorbable complexes with cholesterol in the intestinal lumen.