Plantago lanceolata L. leaves prevent obesity in C57BL/6 J mice fed a high-fat diet.
The highly abundant and widely dispersed plant Plantago lanceolata L. (narrow leaf or English plantain) has been used for culinary and medicinal purposes since ancient times. Here, we investigated the anti-obesity effects of P. lanceolata leaf powder (shortly PL) when fed to male C57BL/6 J mice. Addition of PL to a high-fat diet did not affect food intake but significantly reduced food efficiency, suppressed body weight gain and visceral fat accumulation, and reduced serum free-fatty acid and glucose levels. PL-fed mice exhibited marked increases in HSL, Adrd3 and Cpt2 mRNA levels, and significant decreases in Fas transcripts in epididymal white adipose tissue (WAT). These findings suggest that dietary PL exerts anti-obesity effects by stimulating metabolism throughout visceral fat tissue by activating lipolysis, accelerating fatty acid β-oxidation and suppressing fatty acid synthase in WAT. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of anti-obesity substances derived from a Plantago species.
Tohoku Agricultural Research Centre, National Agricultural and Food Research Organization, 4 Akahira, Shimo-kuriyagawa, Morioka, Iwate 020-0198, Japan. yoshidat@affrc.go.jp
Taiji
T
Yoshida
Kazuhiro
K
Rikimaru
Miho
M
Sakai
Sansei
S
Nishibe
Takahiko
T
Fujikawa
Yoshifumi
Y
Tamura
D000818:Animals; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009765:Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010943:Plantago / Q000737:chemistry*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
D004041:Dietary Fats; D010936:Plant Extracts