Abstract
Obesity has become an urgent worldwide public health problem.
The aim of this study is to provide a simple and beneficial anti-obesity supplement by mixing a new material, Forsythia leaf extract along with Citrus extract, Gardenia fruit extract and Glycyrrhiza extract.
In Experiment 1, the anti-obesity effect of the mixture of herbal extracts (MHE) was investigated in rats fed a normal diet (ND) or a high-fat diet (HFD) with MHE for 10 weeks.
Under ND conditions, MHE group exhibited significant decreases in perirenal white adipose tissue (WATp) and epidymal white adipose tissue weights (WATe). A significant dose-dependent decrease in plasma triglyceride level was observed in the MHE group as compared with the ND-control group.
Under HFD conditions, MHE group exhibited significant decreases in body, WATp and WATe weights. The significant decreases in plasma triglyceride, glucose and insulin levels and the marked increase in plasma adiponectin level were observed in the MHE group as compared with the HFD-control group. These anti-obesity effects of MHE were similar to those of bofutsushosan (BOFU) in the previous reports conducted with BOFU.
In Experiment 2, the gene expressions in the liver and adipose tissues by the administration of MHE in rats fed a HFD for 4 weeks were examined by real-time PCR on the comparison with those of BOFU. The gene expressions of MHE were similar to those of BOFU.
MHE showed the anti-obesity effect corresponding to the effect of BOFU. Therefore, MHE might be a simple and beneficial health supplement for preventing diet-induced obesity.
