Abstract
Medicinal plants have been widely used for their notable health benefits and help in disease prevention for generations. In recent years, obesity has become among the risk factors of hyperglycemia and oxidation stress. This study aims to investigate the potential of plants in Sabah, North Borneo to inhibit the key enzymes involved in obesity, hyperglycemia and oxidative stress. A total of 46 plant extracts were subjected to anti-pancreatic lipase, α-amylase inhibition and antioxidant assays. It was observed that S43 (Lantana camara) exhibited the greatest IC50 of anti-pancreatic lipase activity (mean of IC50 (±S.D.) = 0.20 mg mL-1 ± 0.010). Cinnamomum sp. (S42) has the most substantial α-amylase activity with a mean IC50 (±S.D.) = 2.68 mg mL-1 ± 0.471. S19 (Glochidion rubrum) was the most effective antioxidants (mean of IC50 (±S.D.) = 0.011 mg mL-1 ± 0.004) among all the investigated samples. Interestingly, three plant extracts were found (S6-Buchanania sp.; S22-Vitex negundo and S42-Cinnamomum sp.) to exhibit inhibition activity in anti-pancreatic lipase, α-amylase and antioxidant assays. The bioactivities of plant extracts have been closely related to the content of phytochemicals, as in earlier studies. Thus, plants have the potential to serve as supplements and nutraceuticals for obesity and other related complications.
Highlights
Obesity is one of the most concerning metabolic syndromes, where the global prevalence has nearly tripled since 1975 (World Health Organization [WHO], 2020)
The plant extracts which exhibited more than 50% antioxidant activity were subjected to IC50 value determination
The screening of anti-pancreatic lipase activity using a 0.5 mg mL-1 of all 46 plant extracts revealed that eight plant extracts demonstrated > 50% of inhibition activity (Table S1; Figure 1)
Summary
Obesity is one of the most concerning metabolic syndromes, where the global prevalence has nearly tripled since 1975 (World Health Organization [WHO], 2020). It is alarming that an estimated of 38.2 million children under five years old are overweight or obese, with almost half of them living in Asia (WHO, 2020). Obesity arises from the imbalance of consumed calories and expended calories which creates excess body weight through fat absorption. The imbalance of calories was due to high-fat diet intake, low metabolic rate, the low energy cost of physical activity, low-fat oxidation capacity and increased lipase activity (Little, Horowitz, & Feinle-Bisset, 2007). Fat absorption is reduced due to the inhibition by pancreatic lipase, which reduces obesity (Ahn et al, 2012)
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