Objectives To discuss the effect of sugarcane vinegar on blood lipids level in hyperlipidaemic patients.

Methods 121 hyperlipidaemic patients from out patient department of second hospital were randomly divided into two groups: lipitor group (50 cases) and sugarcane vinegar group (71 cases). Hyperlipidaemia was defined as total cholesterol (TC) >5.17 mmol/L or triglycerides (TG) >1.71 mmol/L or low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) >3.4 mmol/L. Blood lipids included TC, TG, LDL-C and HDL-C (high density lipoprotein-cholesterol). lipitor group was administered with 20 mg atorvastatin per day, while sugarcane vinegar group was administered with 15 ml vinegar twice a day. After a month, blood lipid was tested again, and compared with blood lipid level before treatment, then analysed statistically using SPSS13.0 software.

Results In lipitor group, level of TC, TG, LDL-C was decreased significantly respectively by 30.5%, 26.1%, 37.9% but level of HDL-C level increased by 7.0%. And in vinegar group, TC, TG, LDL-C level decreased by 6.02%, 2%, 7.69%, while level of HDL-C increased by 9.4%. Which means, lipitor decreases blood LDL level, which is significantly greater than vinegar group, while vinegar increases blood HDL level which is slightly greater than lipitor but of no statistical significance (P = 0.05).

Conclusions From diet point of view, sugarcane vinegar has role in decreasing blood lipids. From our research, we found it has also role in increasing HDL, hence by increasing HDL level and decreasing other blood lipids, it exerts effect on prevention of atherosclerosis, and hence incidence of coronary artery diseases.