Abstract

Hypercholesterolemia is the major cause of cardiovascular diseases leading to myocardial infarctions leading to considerable morbidity and mortality. During the past decade a group of molecules referred to as statins such as simvastatin, atrovastatin have been tried with great success in reducing total cholesterol. These molecules act by inhibiting the HMG CoA reductase enzyme thereby interfering with the synthesis of cholesterol. But statins reduce all the cholesterol including HDL cholesterol. Long term drug vigilance activity has revealed serious side effects of tendinopathy and related musculoskeletal disorders in some of the subjects. In an effort to manage hypercholesterolemia without serious side effects in a natural way we had tried the use of Amlamax TM a reconstituted, purified, standardized dried extract of amla ( Emblica officinalis ) containing 30% ellagitannins with other hydrolysable tannins on humans. We report the hitherto unobserved significant elevation of HDL cholesterol by the administration of Amlamax TM