Research in the area of CVD is progressing rapidly and evidence and clinical trials for new drugs to treat CVD are continuously emerging. It is well established that increased levels of blood cholesterol especially low density lipoprotein cholesterol is an important risk factor for cardiovascular complications since it favours lipid deposition in blood vessels. Epidemiological studies have clearly established that Palbociclib reduction of total cholesterol or LDLC is associated with decreased risk of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Treatment of hyperlipidaemia includes dietary changes, weight reduction, exercise and lipid-lowering drugs. Nonetheless, the use of these oral medications can lead to side effects. Therefore, there continues to be a high demand for new, more effective and less toxic oral hypolipidaemic drugs. Plant products are frequently considered to be less toxic and relatively free from side effects than synthetic drugs. Hence, plants play a major role in the introduction of new therapeutic agents and have received much attention as sources of biologically active substances including antioxidative, hypoglycaemic and hypolipidaemic agents. In addition to catechin, Sudjaroen and Haubner identified other phenolics in T. indica fruit pulp, including epicatechin, taxifolin, apigenin, eriodictyol, luteolin, naringenin and different classes of procyanidins. These compounds were reported to exhibit strong antioxidant properties and lipid-lowering effects. Epidemiological studies have shown inverse relationships between the intake of flavonoids from vegetables and fruits and the incidence of heart disease. Hence, many plants have been investigated for their potential hypocholesterolaemic properties. LY2835219 hamsters are a suitable animal model for studying cholesterol metabolism due to their ability to develop hypercholesterolaemia when fed a high-cholesterol diet in addition to having similar characteristics of cholesterol metabolism as humans. The increase in liver weight of cholesterol-fed hamsters could be due to accumulation of cholesterol and triglyceride as a result of increased absorption from the diet. Liver is the major site for cholesterol metabolism in hamsters as well as humans and a high-cholesterol diet had been reported to increase liver weight of hamsters. However, feeding of T. indica fruit pulp along with the high-cholesterol diet reversed this condition, possibly as a result of increased excretion and/or metabolism of cholesterol. The increased body weight of hypercholesterolaemic hamsters was likely contributed by the increase in liver weight. Serum AST, indicators of hepatotoxicity, were unchanged in hamsters treated with T. indica fruit pulp. Although ALT increased in hypercholesterolaemic hamsters, treatment with T. indica fruit pulp reduced the levels back to normal. Increased ALT in hamsters fed a highcholesterol diet is commonly observed. Martinello and Soares reported that administration of T. indica fruit pulp to hamsters did not lead to changes in AST and ALT levels, indicating that T. indica fruit pulp is not hepatotoxic. In this study, hamsters fed on the high-cholesterol diet showed increased triglyceride, total cholesterol, HDL-C and LDLC compared to normal hamsters. A high-cholesterol diet can reduce the LDL-C clearance rate of hamsters causing increased LDL-C in the circulation. Decreasing cholesterol and triglyceride levels in blood prevent the risk of cardiovascular diseases and atherosclerosis. In this study, administration of T. indica fruit pulp together with high-cholesterol diet decreased triglyceride, total cholesterol and LDL-C but did not alter HDL-C levels. It is interesting to note that feeding T. indica fruit pulp to hypercholesterolaemic hamsters reduced LDL-C by more than two-fold.