Preventive Effects of Salacia reticulata on Obesity and Metabolic Disorders in TSOD Mice

Abstract

The extracts of Salacia reticulata (Salacia extract), a plant that has been used for the treatment of early diabetes, rheumatism and gonorrhea in Ayurveda, have been shown to have an anti-obesity effect and suppress hyperglycemia. In this study, the effects of Salacia extract on various symptoms of metabolic disorder were investigated and compared using these TSOD mice and non-obese TSNO mice. Body weight, food intake, plasma biochemistry, visceral and subcutaneous fat (X-ray and CT), glucose tolerance, blood pressure and pain tolerance were measured, and histopathological examination of the liver was carried out. A significant dose-dependent decline in the gain in body weight, accumulation of visceral and subcutaneous fat and an improvement of abnormal glucose tolerance, hypertension and peripheral neuropathy were noticed in TSOD mice. In addition, hepatocellular swelling, fatty degeneration of hepatocytes, inflammatory cell infiltration and single-cell necrosis were observed on histopathological examination of the liver in TSOD mice. Salacia extract markedly improved these symptoms upon treatment. Based on the above results, it is concluded that Salacia extract has remarkable potential to prevent obesity and associated metabolic disorders including the development of metabolic syndrome.

Safety of the Cell-Penetrating Peptide Penetratin as an Oral Absorption Enhancer

“…Generally, the observed levels of ALT and AST found in our controls and orally treated groups are lower than what is observed in other studies, [9][10][11][12] but we ascribe the differences in absolute values to differences in the experimental procedures and mouse strains.…”

Metabolic disease prevention and suppression of fat accumulation by Salacia reticulata

“…Data represent the mean ± SD values (n = 9-10). *Significantly different from the TSOD mice control at P \ 0.05 Also, we have reported that S. reticulata showed usefulness against various metabolic abnormalities including obesity in a study using TSOD mice [18]. However, in the previous study, S. reticulata also showed a suppressing effect on body weight increase and fat accumulation in the TSNO mice used as controls, suggesting that the effects might have indicated toxic changes due to overdosage of S. reticulata.…”

“…The following mechanisms of action for these various effects of Salacia family plants have been reported: inhibition of a-glucosidase in the small intestine [8], activation of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha (PPARa) [7], inhibition of angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT 1 ) [9], inhibition of aldose reductase [10], inhibition of gluconeogenic fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (FBP) [4], and increased oxygen consumption [11]. Using Tsumura Suzuki obesity diabetes (TSOD) mice [12][13][14][15][16][17] (a spontaneously obese type II diabetes mouse model), we have already clarified that S. reticulata shows the following effects: suppression of body weight increase and visceral and subcutaneous fat accumulation, improvement of glucose/lipid metabolism, suppression of blood pressure increase, and prevention of peripheral nerve impairment, and reported that S. reticulata is a promising material showing effects not only on each individual metabolic disease but also on various symptoms of the entire metabolic syndrome [18]. In that experiment, however, S. reticulata also showed a strong suppressing effect on body weight increase and a suppressing effect on visceral and subcutaneous fat accumulation in the Tsumura Suzuki non-obese (TSNO) mice, which are reference animals that display no metabolic diseases such as obesity and type II diabetes, suggesting that the effects might have been toxic changes due to overdosage of S. reticulata.…”

Screening Test for Antibiotics in Medicinal Plants (STAMP): Using Powdered Plant Materials Instead of Extracts

“…The antimicrobial activity of the isolated compounds from P. campestris confirmed the results obtained with STAMP method. P. campestris was chosen for the MIC experiment because it contains substances named quinonemethide triterpenoids, such as maytenin and netzahualcoyone, that are chemotaxonomic markers of the Celastraceae family, and that exhibit a myriad of biological activities [15,16]. The results we obtained with the powdered plant material of P. campestris using the STAMP method and the results of maytenin and netzahualcoyone using the MIC method were similar and showed greatest antimicrobial activity against S. aureus, followed by C. parapsilosis and C. albicans.…”