Anti-obesity effect of nepetae spica extract in high-fat mice

Abstract

In recent years, obesity is the most common metabolic disease emerging as a global problem especially in developed nations. The discovery of bioactive compounds from natural plant extracts is one possible way to control obesity and prevent or reduce the risks of getting various obesity-related diseases. In this study, we elucidated that Nepetae spica extract significantly reduced the body weight gain induced through feeding a high-fat diet to C57BL/6 mice. The treatment of Nepetae spica extract significantly reduced the adipose tissue weight to 1.5/100 g of body weight in high-fat mice. When their adipose tissue morphology was investigated for histochemical staining, the distribution of cell size in the high-fat diet groups was hypertrophied compared with those from Nepetae spica extract-treated mice. In addition, in Nepetae spica extract-treated mice, a significant reduction of serum triglyceride and T-cholesterol was observed at to 13% and 16%, respectively. These results suggest that Nepetae spica extract could be useful for prevention or treatment of obesity.