Effect of cucumber consumption on serum lipid profile and liver aspartate transaminase and alanine transaminase in apparently healthy undergraduate students

This study was designed to investigate the effect of oral intake of cucumber on Serum lipid profile and liver enzymes (AST  and ALT) in young apparently healthy students. A total of 29 subjects (14 males and 15 females) were recruited. Each  subject was advised to abstain from cucumber and similar vegetables consumption for two weeks. Thereafter, they received  400 g of whole cucumber for 21days prior to their daily breakfast. 5mls each of baseline (day zero) and post consumption  (day 22) samples were collected after overnight fast into plain containers for the estimation of biochemical parameters.  Serum TC, TG, HLD, LDL, AST, and ALT were analyzed using standard methods. There was a significant decrease in the  mean serum TC, TGand HDL profile levels in post cucumber consumption when compared to the pre-cucumber  consumption (4.38±0.39 Vs 3.82±0.33; 1.16±0.29 Vs 0.89±0.22; 1.15±0.12 Vs 1.0±0.114; p=0.000). However, serum  levels of LDL, AST and ALT did not differ significantly between pre and post–cucumber consumption. This study  revealed hypolipidaemic effect of cucumber consumption with no harmful effect on the liver. Therefore, cucumber  consumption could be of importance in prevention and management of cardiovascular diseases. Keywords: Cucumber, Total Cholesterol, Triglyceride, Low Density Lipoprotein, High Density Lipoprotein, Aspartate transaminase, Alanine transaminase