ANSWER

Phytosterols are plant sterols that are structurally similar to cholesterol. Plant sterols can be found in marine algae which acts as cell membrane components. Algae sterols consist of cholesterol, fucosterol, isofucosterol, clionosterol, dihydroxysterols (Kim, 2013 & Kumari et al., 2013). According to Chen et al. (2015), algae sterols are effective in reducing plasma cholesterol concentration.

References

Chen, J. Jiao, R., Jiang, Y., Bit, Y. & Chen, Z. (2014). Algal Sterols are as Effective as β-Sitosterol in Reducing Plasma Cholesterol Concentration. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 62(3), 675-681. https://doi.org/10.1021/jf404955n

Kim, S. K. (2013). Marine Nutraceuticals: Prospects and Persepctives (pp. 45-53). Boca Raton: CRC Press.

Kumari, P., Kumar, M., Reddy, C.R.K., Jha, B. (2013). Algal lipids, fatty acids and sterols. In H. Domínguez (Ed.), Functional Ingredients from Algae for Foods and Nutraceuticals (87-134). Cambridge: Woodhead Publishing Limited.