Safety of Phytosterols and Phytosterol Esters as Functional Food Components

In 1911 Ellis and Gardner (1) demonstrated the unabsorbability of phytosterols. In the late 1920s Schönheimer and his colleagues found that sitosterol, stigmasterol, ergosterol, and brassicasterol were not absorbed by rabbits or rats (2-6). Peterson (7,8) provided the first evidence that plant sterols could interfere with cholesterol absorption in chickens. Peterson also found that addition of 1.3% soy sterol to a cholesterol (1%)—containing diet inhibited atherogenesis (9); his findings were confirmed in studies with 14C-labeled cholesterol (10,11).