Preventive responses to a standardized extract of Houttuynia cordata supplemented diet in obesity induced by a high-fat diet in mice

Abstract

The current study investigated preventive responses to Houttuynia cordata (HC) standardized extract in obesity induced by a high-fat diet (HFD) in mice. High-performance liquid chromatography was carried out to analyze bioactive components in HC. Mice were divided into HFD groups as a control and HFD groups fed with 1 and 4 % of HC supplementation diet. Changes of the body weight of mice, blood biological factors, and histopathological markers were measured. Bioactive components from HC were characterized to contain chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, rutin, and quercitrin. HC supplementation reduced body weight, glucose, and total cholesterol levels, but it did not affect aspartic acid transaminase, alanine transaminase, or triglyceride amounts in plasma from mice induced by HFD. A 4 % HC supplementation showed a remarkable decrease in the number of large adipocyte in subcutaneous and abdominal adipose tissue. Histopathological evaluation of liver injury induced by HFD was observed to be improved by HC supplementation, leading to attenuated levels of cytoplasmic vacuolation of hepatocytes. From these results, we explored that standardized extract of HC could be a potential natural product to be directly associated with the control of weight.