薬理と治療

Abstract

Background Kale has health-promoting potentials. Our preliminary open-label study suggested that the intake of kale lowers serum triglyceride（TG）level in subjects with baseline serum TG levels of 150-199 mg╱dL. Objective The aim of this study was to confirm hypotriglyceridemic effect of kale in a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, placebo-controlled study. Methods/study design We enrolled 78 volunteers whose fasting serum TG levels ranged from 120-199 mg╱dL. Subjects were randomly allocated to 3 groups; placebo（group P）, low-dose（7g daily）kale （group L）, and high-dose（14 g daily）kale（group H）. The period of intake was 12 weeks. Two subjects（1each in group P and H）dropped out, and 76 subjects completed the study. After excluding 5 subjects（2 in group P; 3 in group H）who met the exclusion criteria for efficacy analysis, data obtained with 71 subjects were analyzed for efficacy. Results There was a marginal decrease in serum TG level in group H at the 8th week in the analysis of the whole subject population. In subjects with baseline TG levels of 150-199 mg╱dL, significantly lower TG levels （P＜0.01）were observed in both group L and group H （150.8±35.1 and 139.3 ±55.9 mg╱dL, respectively）compared to the level in group P（215.3 ±47.9 mg╱dL）at the 8th week. No serious adverse event was observed during this study. Conclusion Our results suggest that daily intake of 7-14 g of kale benefits persons whose serum TG level is slightly higher than the normal range.