WASHINGTON, May 16 (Xinhua) -- A German study has found that the dietary supplement policosanol, which is made from sugar cane, works no better than dummy pills in reducing bad cholesterol.
In the 12-week trial, 143 adults with high LDL cholesterol were given up to 80 mg of policosanol per day or a dummy pill, and the results showed no meaningful difference.
"Our results suggest that (policosanol) is devoid of clinically relevant lipoprotein-lowering properties," lead author Heiner Bertold of the University of Cologne, Germany, said in Tuesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
He didn't rule out the possibility that policosanol might be effective in other ethnic peoples.
As the new findings contradict the positive results from many previous studies, Bertold said more independent studies are needed to verify the effect of policosanol in reducing cholesterol.
Policosanol, which was originally popular as a natural way to reduce cholesterol in Cuba and is now marketed in more than 40 countries, is a combination of alcohols usually made from the waxy coating on sugar cane. Other sources of the ingredient include rice, bran and beeswax. Enditem
