**26. Blood cholesterol control**

Chitin and chitosan are among the candidates to battle obesity and hypercholesterolemia. It has been reported that they can reduce the amount of cholesterol in rats [160]. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain this phenomenon. One is through electrostatic interaction between lipids and aminopolysaccharides [161]. Chitin binds to lipid (cholesterol) micelles and inhibits their absorption. Another proposed mechanism is increasing the excretion of bile acid by which the amount of fecal fat increases [162]. The hypocholesterolemic effect of chitosan has also been found in humans. The proposed cholesterol lowering mechanism of chitosan was that it combines bile acids in the digestive tract, and excretes them into the feces, thus decreasing the resorption of bile acids, so that the cholesterol pool in the body was decreased and the level of serum cholesterol consequently decreased [163].
