Abstract
A high-fat diet (HFD) results in hyperlipidemia and an increase in oxidative stress.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the preventive effect of embelin against
hyperlipidemia and oxidative stress in HFD-induced obesity in rats. Male Wistar rats
aged 12 weeks (150–200 g) were fed with an HFD for a period of 28 days to induce experimental
obesity. HFD-induced obese rats were treated with embelin (50 mg/kg) or orlistat (10 mg/kg)
for 21 days. A range of parameters were tested including body weight gain, body mass
index (BMI), blood pressure, visceral fat pad weights, serum levels of glucose, insulin,
leptin, apolipoprotein B (ApoB), total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), low-density
lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), hepatic
thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase
(CAT), and glutathione (GSH). Twenty-one days of embelin (50 mg/kg) treatment produced
effects similar to orlistat in reducing body weight gain, blood pressure, visceral
fat pad weight, serum lipid levels, as well as coronary artery risk and atherogenic
indices of HFD-fed rats. Embelin treatment also lowered the serum levels of glucose
by 24.77 %, insulin by 35.03 %, and leptin by 43.39 %. Furthermore, embelin treatment
significantly (p < 0.01) decreased the hepatic TBARS levels, while increasing the
SOD, CAT, and GSH levels in obese rats. The present study indicated the preventive
effect of embelin in HFD-induced obesity and its related complications. Embelin could
be valuable in the development of new drug therapies to prevent obesity, hyperlipidemia,
and oxidative stress.
Key words
embelin -
Embelia ribes Burm. - Myrsinaceae - hyperlipidemia - obesity - oxidative stress
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Dr. Uma Bhandari, Associate Professor
Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy
Jamia Hamdard (Hamdard University)
Hamdard Nagar
New Delhi 110062
India
Telefon: +91 11 26 05 96 88
Fax: +91 11 26 05 96 63
eMail: uma_bora@hotmail.com
