Protective effect of Betula utilis bark extract on high fat diet induced obesity in Wistar rats

Abstract

BackgroundThe metabolic complications due to increased incidence of obesity, is now recognized as a major public health problem. In current era herbal medicine has been recognised as adjuvant therapy for the treatment of several clinical implications. ObjectivesThe current investigation is aimed to explore the anti-obesity effects pertaining to Betula utilis (BU) ethanolic extract in high-fat diet (HFD) induced obesity and hyperlipidemic rat model. MethodsExperimental obesity was developed in the male rats by administering HFD for 10 weeks. Initial and final body weight, Lee index, Body mass index (BMI), fat pads weight, serum glucose, triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC) and various lipoproteins were estimated in the current study. ResultsAfter four week of HFD treatment, BU (100–400 mg/kg/day p.o) was given along with high fat diet for further 6 weeks which significantly reduced HFD induced body weight gain and increase in adipose tissue mass in a dose dependant manner. Moreover, BU attenuated HFD induced augmented serum glucose, TG and TC. The anti-obesity potential of BU was comparable to a well established marketed drug orlistat. ConclusionThese results reflect that BU supplementation decreases body weight, improves obesity serum biomarkers (TG, TC, LDL), and the weight reducing activity of BU may be mediated by decreased fat absorption from the GIT.