The present work was carried out in the Central Lab. for Food and Feed to
show the effect of mushroom on the level of total cholesterol or its fractions. Male and
fem3',· albino rats were used in a seventy three days experimental period study.
Hypercholesterolemic rats were used to study the effect of feeding Mushroom
(Pleurotus columbinus) on serum total cholesterol(T.C.), High Density Lipoprotein
cholesterol (HDL), serum Low Density Lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) and Very Low
Density Lipoprotein (VLDL). Purified basal diets supplemented with mushroom did not
result in important changes in serum total cholesterol. However, changes were
noticed clearly with T.C. distribution between HDL, LDL and VLDL on supplemented
basal diet 1 and 2 with 4% mushroom. A noticeable increase in the HDL and a
decrease in both LDL and VLDL were noticed.