Ancient Folk Remedy Controls Cholesterol

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For more than 2,000 years, healers in India have used a tree resin as a folk medicine to treat a variety of ailments. Modern researchers now find it effective in controlling high cholesterol.

The tree is known in India as guggul. Its sap contains a compound that blocks the action of a cell receptor, called FXR, which helps regulate a body’s cholesterol level, said David D. Moore, a molecular biologist at the Baylor School of Medicine in Houston. He is co-author of a study that appeared Friday in Science Express, the electronic version of the journal Science.

“Our results suggest that other compounds that could affect FXR could also control cholesterol,” Moore said. “This mechanism is completely different from the action of statin drugs,” which are taken by millions to control cholesterol.