Effect of the oral administration of Ephedra Sinica extract on suppression of body weight gains

Abstract

Ephedra Sinica (Ma-hwang, ES) is a medicinal extract used in Oriental Medicine. ES is used clinically to release exterior symptoms, disperse cold, control wheezing, promote urination and reduce edema. Historically, ES have suppressive effect on body weight gains. Using diet-induced obesity C57BL/6 mouse model, anti-obesity effect and cytotoxicity of the longterm oral administration of these herbal extracts were investigated. Herbal extract treated groups were arrested in weight increment only when they were lodged together. Such effects were abolished when they kept individually. ES fed mice behaved very rudely and violently. On the basis of histological studies of liver tissues and also in vitro cytotoxicity tests of the liver and kidney cell lines, no significant toxicity was found by 14 weeks of ES treatments. However, we found significant changes in gene expression profile between ES treated group and SA treated group by micro-array analysis. In case of ES group, up-regulated genes were 113 and down-regulated were 120. Some of lipid metabolism related genes also significantly changed in both treatment groups. In conclusion, ES had effects on increasing the basal metabolic rate by stimulating the sympathetic nervous systems.