3.2.2. Phytosterols
Phytosterols play an important role in lowering blood choles-terol due to a similar structure to cholesterol. Since they are fat sol- uble, phytosterols are abundant in vegetable oils, margarine, nuts, seeds, and legumes (Clifton, 2002). The phytosterol contents of the fruits ranged from 13–22 mg/100 g, which in descending order of magnitude were: A.velutinosum Blume, S. pinnata (L.f.) Kurz, and P. emblica L. (Table 3). The major phytosterol was b-sitosterol,
which is in agreement with a study by Han, Yang, and Feng (2008) that reported phytosterol contents of 1.6–32.6 mg/100 g in 33 fruits commonly consumed in China.