Abstract
Amomum tsao-ko (Zingiberaceae), an important traditional medicinal herb, possesses many biological activities, including anti-inflammatory effects. Though the anti-obesity properties of the crude ethanol extract of A. tsao-ko fruits have been reported, the anti-adipogenic properties of its phytochemical constituents have not been reported. Therefore, in the present study, we isolated the active constituents of A. tsao-ko and investigated their anti-adipogenic effects. The bioassay-guided isolation of the phytochemicals from the ethanol extract of A. tsao-ko fruits identified four bioactive compounds, comprising one fatty acid (1), one sesquiterpene alcohol (2), and two phenolic compounds (3 and 4). Their structures were elucidated by a combination of 1D and/or 2D nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry. The anti-adipogenic activities of the four compounds evaluated by Oil Red O staining in 3T3-L1 cells revealed that the treatment with the isolated compounds 1 and 3 reduced the lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes more strongly than the compounds 2 and 4, in a dose-dependent manner.
Highlights
Obesity, the most common metabolic disease, is defined as a state of excess body fat accumulation that results from energy imbalance [1]
As a part of an ongoing effort to discover naturally occurring anti-obesity agents from medicinal herbal extracts, our preliminary experiment revealed the potential of the ethanol extract of the fruits of A. tsao-ko in suppressing lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes [26]
Reagents and instruments Optical rotations were measured using a JASCO P-2000 polarimeter (Tokyo, Japan). 1D (1H, 13C, and Distortions enhancement by polariza‐ tion transfer (DEPT)) and 2D (1H-1H Correlated spectroscopy (COSY), Heteronuclear single quantum coherence spectroscopy (HSQC), and Heteronu‐ clear multiple bond correlation (HMBC)) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra were measured on a Bruker Ascend III 700 spectrometer (Bruker BioSpin GmbH., Rheinstetten, Germany) with tetramethylsilane as an internal standard, and chemical shifts were expressed as δ values
Summary
The most common metabolic disease, is defined as a state of excess body fat accumulation that results from energy imbalance [1]. It is a serious public health problem implicated in various pathological disorders such as hypertension, type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and certain cancers [2]. Obesity involves the abnormal growth of adipocytes characterized either by hypertrophy (increase in cell size) or hyperplasia (increase in cell number) of fat-storing cells, and both are considered as therapeutic targets for the treatment of obesity [3]. The preadipocytes are the precursors of adipose depots that undergo complete differentiation into mature adipocytes.
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