Introduction: In hyperlipidemia i.e., high levels of cholesterol, when there is no potential alternative to drug therapy, the extracorporeal column adsorption is the most effective tool to immediately reduce the blood lipid content. In current study, Thymus powder performance as serum-contact adsorbent was investigated according to isothermal and kinetic batch adsorption experiments with the actual human pooled serum as adsorbing medium. Methods: To measure the isothermal data, 0.1 g of adsorbent was equilibrated with 0.1 dl pooled serum at different concentrations (150 to 200 mg/dl), and the final concentration of the cholesterol was obtained. For gathering the kinetic data, 0.5 g adsorbent was poured in 0.5 dl pooled serum solution with the initial concentration of 175 mg/dl, and the concentration of the solution was monitored at different time intervals. X-Ray Diffraction technique, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize the Thymus powder. Results: Cholesterol removal was increased from 30% to 50% with increasing adsorbent dose from 0.01 to 0.1 g; meanwhile, further increase had little effect on the blood cholesterol level. Cholesterol adsorption capacity of the powder was around 85 mg/g. The adsorption mechanism could be explained by “chemical adsorption” through “Hbonding” on the surface of the fluffy fibers and inside the Thymus powder pores. Conclusions: Cholesterol adsorption from human blood serum was studied using Thymus as a biocompatible and effective herbal biosorbent, for possible application in extracorporeal blood perfusion therapy. Keywords: Serum, Thymus, Cholesterol, Biosorption, Extracorporeal perfusion.
