Materials and Methods: Rats were equally divided into three groups: control group, cholesterol group and cholesterol + ginseng group. The control group had fed as ad libitum with a standard rat diet for 40 days. The cholesterol and cholesterol + ginseng groups had ad libitum access to the same diet containing 5% cholesterol powder and 5% cholesterol + 1 g/kg panax ginseng root powder, respectively, for 40 days. On the 40th day of the study, blood samples were taken from all animals in each group. In plasma samples, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase (CAT) levels were determined.

Results: GSH and SOD levels significantly decreased with feeding high cholesterol diet compared to control group (P<0.05), while these parameters in cholesterol + ginseng group were not different from both cholesterol and control group. There was no difference among the groups in respect of TBARS, GPx and CAT levels.

Conclusion: These results indicate that panax ginseng might be beneficial to reduce risk of hypercholesterolemia-induced oxidative stress.