Evaluation of Anti-Obesity Properties of Few South Indian Medicinal Plants by Using Pancreatic Lipase Assay

Abstract

Obesity and obesity-related complications are alarming threat to both in the developed and developing world because of obesity’s many serious comorbidities put a large financial burden on the economy. As raised body weight leads to adverse metabolic effects on insulin resistance, blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides. Natural products, particularly medicinal plants, are believed to harbor potential anti-obesity properties through various mechanisms by preventing weight gain or promoting weight loss amongst others. The inhibitory activity of the selected medicinal plant extracts on pancreatic lipase was assessed using porcine pancreatic lipase (PPL) as an in vitro assay system. We report the results of in vitro anti-lipase assays of 10 plants grown in south indian region India. The extracts of Achyranthes aspera Linn., and Coffea canephora showed up to 59% PPL inhibition. In addition to these findings, seven extracts from different plants were able to inhibit PPL in the range of 30-50%. The general composition of the most effective ethanol extracts was obtained in order to confirm their known chemistry reported by previous works.