Abstract
Obesity is increasingly becoming one of the most prevalent health concerns, with the significant rise in mortality and morbidity related to diabetes, hypertension, and coronary heart diseases, for example. Prevention and treatment of such life style-related diseases are important areas for research. In the course of our search for and functional analysis of effective natural products, we have reported many findings for anti-diabetes, anti-obesity, and anti-allergic compounds from medicinal plants and functional foods. In this paper, our studies on anti-obesity medicinal plants and their active principles, such as chakasaponins from the flowers of Camellia sinensis, trans-tiliroside from the seeds of Carina canina, vaticanols from the bark and wood of Cotylelobium melanoxylon, and chrogenic acid derivatives from the leaves of Ilex paraguariensis, are reviewed.
