Anti-obesity natural products

It is well accepted that hyperphagia, the increased consumption of a high-fat diet and hyperinsulinemia contribute to the development of obesity. We designed two animal models of obesity gold thioglucose (GTG)-induced obesity and high-fat diet-induced obesity in mice. We examined the anti-obesity effects of natural products in these models. 

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. 

A compound that has attracted wide interest recently is resveratrol, 12.4. It is found in red grape skins, grape juice, and red wine, and increases longevity in simple organisms such as fruit flies and worms, and also obese mice. Past studies have focused on its effect on enzymes called sirtuins that remove acetyl groups from proteins, but recent work suggests that resveratrol blocks phosphodiesterase enzymes. Like many natural products, it has a number of different effects, and it remains unclear as to which are crucial in its anti-aging effects. 

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