Magtalisay Tree Essay

Magtalisay Tree Used in Lowering of Cholesterol Levels
Magtalisay Tree (Terminalia catappa) or Indian Almond is a large tropical tree in the leadwood tree family, Combretaceae, that grows mainly in the tropical regions of Asia, Africa, and Australia. It is known by the English common names country-almond, Indian-almond, Malabar-almond, sea-almond, tropical-almond and false kamani. It is among one of the most common trees throughout India, Malaysia and many other parts of South East Asia, growing wild as well as cultivated for its striking features as well as its tasty nut. The tree grows to 35 m (115 ft) tall, with an upright, symmetrical crown and horizontal branches. Magtalisay has corky, light fruit that are dispersed by water. Its fruits
It is used to make bile, a substance needed in order for the body to digest food that contains fat for it acts as an emulsifier that breaks down large globules of fat into smaller particles in order for these particles to be able to mix better with the enzymes that digest fat. Although, cholesterol works as a good substance within the human body, when the body obtains large amounts of cholesterol this would lead to Hypercholesterolemia or highly abnormal levels of cholesterol. In humans, the desired cholesterol level is 200. When one’s cholesterol goes beyond the desired cholesterol level then this would mean that the individual has the risk of getting Hypercholesterolemia. Hypercholesterolemia cause atherosclerosis wherein the arteries are hardened and narrowed, slowly blocking the arteries and putting blood flow at risk. This would then lead to more diseases such as coronary artery disease (CAD), heart attack, transient ischemic attack (TIA) or stroke and peripheral arterial
al., 1993).Under these conditions, the cholesterol level increases rapidly and the early lesionsare characterized by the presence of foam cells originating from macrophages. Although these early lesions are similar to human fatty streaks, they do not develop as tissue plaques, which are the trademarks of atherosclerosis in humans (Kolodgie, et.al.,1996). Although, long-term experiments using diets high in cholesterol are discouraging because high hepatotoxicity does not allow the animal to survive and massive inflammation in the body does not reflect human pathophysiology, still, a great number of researchers use rabbits to test the effectiveness ofdrugs on