# Effect of Ajwa Date and Germinated Barley on Lipid Profile in Rats Fed High-Fat Diet
## 4 Discussion  
Recently, with the increase in ultra-processed foods, diets are enriched with different types of fats, resulting in hyperlipidemia (HYL), obesity, and cardiovascular diseases. Significant increases in TC, TG, VLDL, and LDL and decreases in HDL are the main categories for hyperlipidemia. Consequently, ameliorating HYL is substantial for avoiding and remedying cerebrovascular and cardiovascular syndromes and dropping social stress. In the current study, the authors described the potential of AD and GB in reducing the lipid profile due to their antihyperlipidemic and antioxidant effects. The mixture of AD and GB can effectively reduce lipid profile (TC, TG, VLDL, and LDL) in rats and increase HDL fed with HFD, as demonstrated in the present study. The chemical composition of the barley before and after germination was analyzed to measure the effectiveness of germination on the barley with a high percentage of protein, vitamin C, and lower contents of fats for GB. This diversity of components between the seed and germinated barley may lead to the production of some amino acids during protein biosynthesis [34]. Moreover, decreased percentages of fat in the germinated barley may lead to the breakdown of lipids into simpler compounds during the germination process [35], and improve the beta oxidation of fats to provide more energy for cellular activity [36]. A decrease in the beta-glucan fiber content of barley after germination was also observed in these results. These results agree with the results of [9], which showed that germination causes an increase in the activity of beta-glucan enzymes, which are the primary enzymes responsible for breaking down the endosperm cell walls during germination, and thus reduce the beta-glucan content, and this decrease is inversely proportional to the increase in germination time. The content of phenolic substances in barley increased with a statistically significant increase after germination compared to normal barley. This result is consistent with the results obtained by [37; 38]. One of the main advantages of germination is that the antioxidant properties of grain can be enhanced by increasing the content of phenols, and this increase depends on the type of grain grown and the germination conditions. It was found from previous studies that using a mixture of organic solvent and water at a rate ranging between 50 and 70% allows for the extraction of most of the phenolic components from plant samples [39; 40]. It also showed that the total polyphenol content of Ajwa dates ranges from 245 to 455.8 mg/100 g.  
The amount of extracted phenols is greatly affected by the extraction solvent used, its concentration, and the degree of maturity of the dates, as the phenols content decreases significantly with the dates' ripening progression. This is consistent with the researcher's conclusion. Epidemiological studies have shown that the consumption of foods high in phenols is associated with reduced cardiovascular disease, inflammation, and cancer-related mortality [41]. Moreover, the mixture of AD and GB (ABM) decreased the liver indices and enzymes, especially ALT, compared to the rats induced with the hyperlipidemia group (PC). We supposed that this improvement in lipid profile is a response to rats fed a HFD, which could be attributed to the potent antioxidant ability of AD and GB, as shown in Table 2. Moreover, based on the chemical composition of GB, higher contents of carbohydrates and vitamin C are higher in GB than in barley seed (Table 1). Geminated seeds or sprout seeds present more active phytochemicals or carotenoids than seeds, demonstrating many health-promoting abilities, including reducing TC, anti-obesity, anti-oxidants, and inflammatory abilities [42; 43]. Moreover, this research indicated that the mixture of GB and AD was related to reducing lipid accumulation in rats fed a HFD, as reported previously by [44; 45] in hepatocytes and adipocytes.