Dill and kale extracts lower cholesterol in lab-grown liver cells
What it found
In lab-grown human liver cells, dill and kale extracts reduced cholesterol levels by a similar amount.
The extracts also changed the levels of certain proteins involved in cholesterol handling.
What they found
Animal and lab studies
Cholesterol reduction
Dill extract lowered cholesterol in the cells by 7.8% and kale extract by 10.4%, compared with control cells. Mevastatin lowered it by 6.0%, while the cholesterol-loading treatment raised it by 22.6%.
SREBP1 gene activity
The gene for SREBP1 was more active in cells given dill or kale extract, but the amount of SREBP1 protein did not change. The cholesterol-loading and mevastatin treatments did not affect SREBP1 or SREBP2.
HMGCR protein
Dill extract significantly increased the amount of HMGCR protein, and kale extract showed a similar trend. The gene for HMGCR was not more active in either group.
LDLR protein
Kale extract significantly increased LDLR protein levels, and dill extract showed a similar but not significant trend. The gene for LDLR was not more active in either group.
What the authors conclude
“Although we obtained results with a similar magnitude and trend in the dill‐ and kale‐supplemented cells, the slight modifications by the different compositions of the minor bioactive compounds were clearly shown, indicating that only by considering the food as a whole is it possible to understand the complex relationship between food, nutrition and health in a foodomics vision.”
Also in their conclusions
- They say that only by considering food as a whole is it possible to understand the complex relationship between food, nutrition and health.
- They note that the use of extracts instead of pure molecules is not a limitation because the activity of a whole food needs to be deciphered at the molecular level.
- They state that this is the first study to compare the molecular effects of different foods that share the same major bioactive component but differ in other bioactive compounds.
How it was done
The authors wanted to see how the whole food matrix affects cholesterol-lowering, since most studies test single compounds and may miss how other components in the same food work together.
They treated HepG2 human liver cells with dill extract, kale extract, a cholesterol-loading mixture, or mevastatin for 24 hours. Both extracts were given at 100 micrograms per millilitre, a dose similar to human blood levels after eating quercetin-rich foods.
What it can’t tell you
- These are lab-grown liver cells, not people. They cannot show what happens in the human body after eating dill or kale.
- The study used extracts at a single dose for 24 hours. It cannot show long-term effects or how whole foods would act in a normal diet.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- University of Bologna, Italy
The paper
- Title
- The molecular mechanism of the cholesterol-lowering effect of dill and kale: The influence of the food matrix components
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Animals and lab studies
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Licence
- CC BY. Words in quotation marks are the authors’; the rest is our summary.
- Cite
- Danesi F, Govoni M, D'Antuono LF, Bordoni A (2016). The molecular mechanism of the cholesterol-lowering effect of dill and kale: The influence of the food matrix components. Electrophoresis. doi:10.1002/elps.201600033Free full textPubMed 27028988DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error