Common medicinal plants with antiobesity potential: A special emphasis on fenugreek

Roles of Marine Macroalgae or Seaweeds and Their Bioactive Compounds in Combating Overweight, Obesity and Diabetes: A Comprehensive Review

Obesity and diabetes are matters of serious concern in the health sector due to their rapid increase in prevalence over the last three decades. Obesity is a severe metabolic problem that results in energy imbalance that is persistent over a long period of time, and it is characterized by insulin resistance, suggesting a strong association with type 2 diabetes (T2D). The available therapies for these diseases have side effects and some still need to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and they are expensive for underdeveloped countries. Hence, the need for natural anti-obesity and anti-diabetic drugs has increased in recent years due to their lower costs and having virtually no or negligible side effects. This review thoroughly examined the anti-obesity and anti-diabetic effects of various marine macroalgae or seaweeds and their bioactive compounds in different experimental settings. According to the findings of this review, seaweeds and their bioactive compounds have been shown to have strong potential to alleviate obesity and diabetes in both in vitro and in vivo or animal-model studies. However, the number of clinical trials in this regard is limited. Hence, further studies investigating the effects of marine algal extracts and their bioactive compounds in clinical settings are required for developing anti-obesity and anti-diabetic medicines with better efficacy but lower or no side effects.

Anti-Diabesity Middle Eastern Medicinal Plants and Their Action Mechanisms

Over the last four decades, the escalation in diabetes and obesity rates has become epidemic all over the world. Diabesity describes the strong link between T2D and obesity. It correlates deeper with the elevated risks of developing cardiovascular disease hypertension, stroke, and several malignancies. Therapeutic usage of medicinal plants and natural products in the treatment of diabetes and obesity has long been known to physicians of Greco-Arab and Islamic medicine. Improved versions of their abundant medicinal plant-based formulations are at present some of the most popular herbal treatments used. Preclinical and clinical data about medicinal plants along with their bioactive constituents are now available, justifying the traditionally known therapeutic uses of products derived from them for the prevention and cure of obesity-related T2D and other health problems. The aim of this review is to systematize published scientific data dealing with the efficiency of active ingredients or extracts from Middle Eastern medicinal plants and diet in the management of diabesity and its complications. Google Scholar, MEDLINE, and PubMed were searched for publications describing the medicinal plants and diet used in the management of T2D, obesity, and their complications. The used keywords were “medicinal plants” or “herbals” in combination with “obesity,” “diabetes,” “diabetes,” or nephropathy. More than 130 medicinal plants were identified to target diabesity and its complications. The antidiabetic and anti-obesity effects and action mechanisms of these plants are discussed here. These include the regulation of appetite, thermogenesis, lipid absorption, and lipolysis; pancreatic lipase activity and adipogenesis; glucose absorption in the intestine, insulin secretion, glucose transporters, gluconeogenesis, and epigenetic mechanisms.

Metabolic and Epigenetics Action Mechanisms of Antiobesity Medicinal Plants and Phytochemicals

Ever-growing research efforts are demonstrating the potential of medicinal plants and their phytochemicals to prevent and manage obesity, either individually or synergistically. Multiple combinations of phytochemicals can result in a synergistic activity that increases their beneficial effects at molecular, cellular, metabolic, and temporal levels, offering advantages over chemically synthesized drug-based treatments. Herbs and their derived compounds have the potential for controlling appetite, inhibiting pancreatic lipase activity, stimulating thermogenesis and lipid metabolism, increasing satiety, promoting lipolysis, regulating adipogenesis, and inducing apoptosis in adipocytes. Furthermore, targeting adipocyte life cycle using various dietary bioactives that affect different stages of adipocyte life cycle represents also an important target in the development of new antiobesity drugs. In this regard, different stages of adipocyte development that are targeted by antiobesity drugs can include preadipocytes, maturing preadipocytes, and mature adipocytes. Various herbal-derived active compounds, such as capsaicin, genistein, apigenin, luteolin, kaempferol, myricetin, quercetin, docosahexaenoic acid, quercetin, resveratrol, and ajoene, affect adipocytes during specific stages of development, resulting in either inhibition of adipogenesis or induction of apoptosis. Although numerous molecular targets that can be used for both treatment and prevention of obesity have been identified, targeted single cellular receptor or pathway has resulted in limited success. In this review, we discuss the state-of-the-art knowledge about antiobesity medicinal plants and their active compounds and their effects on several cellular, molecular, and metabolic pathways simultaneously with multiple phytochemicals through synergistic functioning which might be an appropriate approach to better management of obesity. In addition, epigenetic mechanisms (acetylation, methylation, miRNAs, ubiquitylation, phosphorylation, and chromatin packaging) of phytochemicals and their preventive and therapeutic perspective are explored in this review.

Alliin inhibits adipocyte differentiation by downregulating Akt expression: Implications for metabolic disease

Obesity is currently an important health problem and is associated with an increased likelihood of various diseases. The efficacies of various natural treatments have been assessed for their utility in treating obesity. Alliin (S-allyl-L-cysteine sulfoxides) is considered the major component of garlic and has a wide range of natural antioxidant properties. However, the direct effects of alliin on obesity have not been well clarified. The present study investigated the effects and possible mechanisms of alliin on adipocyte differentiation. The 3T3-L1 cells were treated with alliin (0-40 µg/ml) during adipogenic differentiation. The effect of alliin on lipid accumulation was evaluated by Oil red O staining. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR was performed to investigate the expression levels of adipogenic differentiation-related genes. The accumulation of lipid droplets was markedly inhibited following alliin treatment. The expression levels of multiple adipogenic transcription markers, such as CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP) β, C/EBP α and peroxisome proliferation-activity receptor γ, were markedly decreased following treatment with alliin during adipogenic differentiation. Expression levels of several adipocyte-related genes were subsequently suppressed. Additionally, alliin suppressed PKB/Akt and PI3K expression. These results suggested that alliin exhibits anti-adipogenic activity by downregulating major adipogenic differentiation-related genes and Akt/PI3K expression. Alliin may have a potential therapeutic effect on metabolic disease.

A network pharmacology study on main chemical compounds from Hibiscus cannabinus L. leaves

Hibiscus cannabinus L. leaves (HCLLs) are considered a favorable source of natural antiobesity substances. However, actual bioactive compound(s) in it and their mechanism(s) against obesity have not been confirmed. Hence, network pharmacology was conducted to identify its key compounds and mechanism(s) against obesity. Compounds in HCLLs were identified through GC-MS analysis and screened by Lipinski's rule. Genes related to the selected compounds and obesity were obtained from public databases, and overlapping genes between HCLL compound-related genes and obesity target genes were selected using a Venn diagram. The networking between selected compounds and overlapping genes was then constructed, visualized, and analyzed by RStudio. Finally, the binding affinity between compounds and genes was evaluated via molecular docking (MD). A total of 30 compounds in HCLLs were detected via GC-MS, and Lipinski's rule accepted all compounds. The compound-related genes (570 genes) and obesity targeted genes (3028 genes) were identified, and between them, 64 overlapping genes were selected. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) displayed that the mechanisms of HCLLs against obesity were associated with 13 signaling pathways on 22 compounds in HCLLs. Superficially, AKT1, vitamin E, and RAS signaling pathways were noted as a hub gene, an uppermost bioactive compound, and a hub signaling pathway, respectively. However, the binding affinity of ligands and proteins on the RAS signaling pathway was very low; instead, the PPAR signalling pathway was evaluated with potent efficacy against obesity through MD. On the PPAR signaling pathway, α-amyrin was found as the most significant compound for the amelioration of obesity. α-Amyrin manifested the strongest binding affinity on six target proteins associated with the PPAR signaling pathway. Our study suggests that an auxiliary (PPAR) signaling pathway of HCLLs might intervene efficiently against obesity over the hub (RAS) signaling pathway.

Effect of Elicitation with Iron Chelate and Sodium Metasilicate on Phenolic Compounds in Legume Sprouts

Seven-day-old sprouts of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.), lentil (Lens culinaris L.), and alfalfa (Medicagosativa L.) were studied. The legume seeds and then sprouts were soaked each day for 30 min during 6 days with water (control) or mixture of Fe-EDTA and sodium silicate (Optysil), or sodium silicate (Na-Sil) alone. Germination and sprout growing was carried out at temperature 20 ± 2 °C in 16/8 h (day/night) conditions. Phenolic compounds (free, ester, and glycosides) content were determined by HPLC-ESI-MS/MS using a multiple reaction monitoring of selected ions. Flavonoids and phenolic acids were released from their esters after acid hydrolysis and from glycosides by alkaline hydrolysis. The presence and high content of (−)-epicatechin (EC) in fenugreek sprouts was demonstrated for the first time. Applied elicitors decreased the level of free EC in fenugreek and alfalfa sprouts but enhanced the content of its esters. Besides, elicitors decreased the content of quercetin glycosides in lentil and fenugreek sprouts but increased the content of quercetin and apigenin glycosides in alfalfa sprouts. The applied elicitors decreased the glycoside levels of most phenolic acids in lentil and p-hydroxybenzoic acid in fenugreek, while they increased the content of this acid in alfalfa. The mixture of iron chelate and sodium silicate had less effect on changes in flavonoid and phenolic acid content in legume sprouts than silicate alone. In general, the used elicitors increased the content of total phenolic compounds in fenugreek and alfalfa sprouts and decreased the content in lentil sprouts. Among the evaluated elicitors, Optysil seems to be worth recommending due to the presence of iron chelate, which can be used to enrich sprouts with this element.

Efficacy of Fenugreek-based bionanocomposite on renal dysfunction and endogenous intoxication in high-calorie diet-induced obesity rat model-comparative study

BACKGROUND

Worldwide obesity spread is a global health problem and needs to be further studied. Co-morbidities of obesity include insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus type 2, and dyslipidemia, which are the most frequent contributing factors for metabolic syndrome (MetS), as well as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and chronic kidney disease. The aim was to study renal function and endogenous intoxication panel on high-calorie diet-induced obesity rat model and perform comparative study of the treatment efficacy of Fenugreek-based bionanocomposite vs antiobesogenic drugs (Orlistat).

MATERIALS

We included 60 male rats and equally divided them to 6 groups of 10 animals in each group: the experimental groups were firstly assigned as controls and high caloric diet (HCD)-fed groups, and each group further was subdivided to remain untreated, Fenugreek bionanocomposite (BNC)-treated, and Orlistat-treated. Normal control rats (groups 1, 2, 3) were fed by a standard chow, while the others (groups 4, 5, 6) were fed with HCD ad libitum during 98 days. From days 77 to 98, groups 2 and 5 were treated with BNC based on Fenugreek (150 mg/kg body weight, orally) and groups 3 and 6 were treated with antiobesogenic drug Orlistat (10 mg/kg body weight, orally). Food and water consumptions were measured daily and body weights were measured once a week. On day 99, blood was collected; the creatinine, urea, and uric acid were estimated in serum according to the standard protocols. Levels of low and middle molecules (MMs) were measured; the quantity of oligopeptides was estimated by Bradford method. We performed the liver and kidney ultrasonography in rats.

RESULTS

We revealed an increase in the levels of endogenous intoxication syndrome markers (MM and oligopeptides) in all animals with experimental obesity. Ultrasound data showed injury of the liver and kidneys in obese rats. We observed significant decreasing of MM levels after Orlistat treatment vs controls (p < 0.05). However, this effect was more pronounced in Fenugreek BNC-treated group vs both Orlistat-treated and controls (p < 0.05). Orlistat treatment evoked rising of serum creatinine and oligopeptides in control animals and failed to normalize these markers in experimental group. Fenugreek-based BNC treatment did not evoke signs of kidney failure and changes in the studied indices in control group. We noticed normalization levels of uric acid and urea in the blood under the use of BNC and Orlistat.

CONCLUSION

High-calorie diet-induced obesity evokes endogenous intoxication syndrome and kidney dysfunction in rats. Application of Orlistat- and Fenugreek-based BNC decreases MM content to the normal level. Orlistat induces increasing levels of oligopeptides in both groups, likely due to adverse side effects on renal function and its pro-oxidant activity.