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Analysis of Monacolins and Berberine in Food Supplements for Lipid Control: An Overview of Products Sold on the Italian Market

The use of dietary supplements for the prevention and management of diseases associated with excess of lipids is spreading in Western countries. Supplements containing red yeast rice (RYR) and extracts from Berberis species, characterized, respectively, by the active compounds monacolin K (MK) and b...

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Autores principales: Marcheluzzo, Sara, Faggian, Marta, Zancato, Mirella, Peron, Gregorio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8069111/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33921464
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules26082222
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author Marcheluzzo, Sara
Faggian, Marta
Zancato, Mirella
Peron, Gregorio
author_facet Marcheluzzo, Sara
Faggian, Marta
Zancato, Mirella
Peron, Gregorio
author_sort Marcheluzzo, Sara
collection PubMed
description The use of dietary supplements for the prevention and management of diseases associated with excess of lipids is spreading in Western countries. Supplements containing red yeast rice (RYR) and extracts from Berberis species, characterized, respectively, by the active compounds monacolin K (MK) and berberine (BBR), are sold in pharmacies as over the counter medicines (OTC) and in regular markets without the need of medical prescription and medical surveillance. However, MK is chemically identical to lovastatin, a drug commonly used to treat hypercholesterolemia, and is characterized by the same mechanism of action, pharmacokinetic profile and toxicity. On the other hand, although BBR-containing supplements are considered to be well-tolerated and safe, they frequently show poor standardization of active ingredients, and this could lead to lack of effects. In this work, with the aim to give an overview on the potency of RYR- and BBR-containing supplements available on the Italian market, we analyzed a pool of supplements bought from both local pharmacies and markets. Results confirm the data already published by other authors, showing scarce standardization of bioactives and discrepancy between the doses of bioactives reported by the manufacturers and the amounts resulting from analysis of the same products. Overall, our data represent a further proof that a strict legislation regulating the production and marketing of dietary supplements and a close monitoring of these products by food and drug regulatory organs is mandatory.
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spelling pubmed-80691112021-04-26 Analysis of Monacolins and Berberine in Food Supplements for Lipid Control: An Overview of Products Sold on the Italian Market Marcheluzzo, Sara Faggian, Marta Zancato, Mirella Peron, Gregorio Molecules Article The use of dietary supplements for the prevention and management of diseases associated with excess of lipids is spreading in Western countries. Supplements containing red yeast rice (RYR) and extracts from Berberis species, characterized, respectively, by the active compounds monacolin K (MK) and berberine (BBR), are sold in pharmacies as over the counter medicines (OTC) and in regular markets without the need of medical prescription and medical surveillance. However, MK is chemically identical to lovastatin, a drug commonly used to treat hypercholesterolemia, and is characterized by the same mechanism of action, pharmacokinetic profile and toxicity. On the other hand, although BBR-containing supplements are considered to be well-tolerated and safe, they frequently show poor standardization of active ingredients, and this could lead to lack of effects. In this work, with the aim to give an overview on the potency of RYR- and BBR-containing supplements available on the Italian market, we analyzed a pool of supplements bought from both local pharmacies and markets. Results confirm the data already published by other authors, showing scarce standardization of bioactives and discrepancy between the doses of bioactives reported by the manufacturers and the amounts resulting from analysis of the same products. Overall, our data represent a further proof that a strict legislation regulating the production and marketing of dietary supplements and a close monitoring of these products by food and drug regulatory organs is mandatory. MDPI 2021-04-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8069111/ /pubmed/33921464 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules26082222 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Marcheluzzo, Sara
Faggian, Marta
Zancato, Mirella
Peron, Gregorio
Analysis of Monacolins and Berberine in Food Supplements for Lipid Control: An Overview of Products Sold on the Italian Market
title Analysis of Monacolins and Berberine in Food Supplements for Lipid Control: An Overview of Products Sold on the Italian Market
title_full Analysis of Monacolins and Berberine in Food Supplements for Lipid Control: An Overview of Products Sold on the Italian Market
title_fullStr Analysis of Monacolins and Berberine in Food Supplements for Lipid Control: An Overview of Products Sold on the Italian Market
title_full_unstemmed Analysis of Monacolins and Berberine in Food Supplements for Lipid Control: An Overview of Products Sold on the Italian Market
title_short Analysis of Monacolins and Berberine in Food Supplements for Lipid Control: An Overview of Products Sold on the Italian Market
title_sort analysis of monacolins and berberine in food supplements for lipid control: an overview of products sold on the italian market
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8069111/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33921464
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules26082222
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