Anti-obesity effects inhibitory actions

It is well known that dietary fat is not absorbed from the intestine unless it has been subjected to the action of pancreatic lipase [1], Previously, we found that basic proteins such as protamines, histones and purothionine inhibited the hydrolysis of triolein emulsified with phosphatidylcholine [2], The inhibition of hydrolysis of dietary fat may cause a decrease or delay in the intestinal absorption of fat and reduce blood chylomicron levels, an excess of which is known to induce obesity [3], Therefore, there was a possibility that inhibitory substances toward pancreatic lipase activity may prevent the onset of obesity induced by feeding a high fat diet to mice. Recently, we found that natural products such as tea saponin, platycodi radix saponin, chitin-chitosan and chondroitin sulfate inhibited the pancreatic lipase activity. In the following section, the anti-obesity effects of these natural products will be described in detail. 

It was demonstrated that the anti-obesity effects of oolong tea in high-fat diet-treated mice might be partly due to the inhibitory actions of the saponin fraction in oolong tea on pancreatic lipase activity. In this study, tea saponin prevented the high-fat diet-induced increases in body and parametrial adipose tissue weights by inhibiting the intestinal absorption of dietary fat via inhibition of pancreatic lipase activity, Fig. (5). 

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