• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.516-520
• /
• 2001

This study was conducted to investigate whether the obesity of obese fa/fa male Zucker rats can be ameliorated by mulberry leaves. There was no significant difference between mulberry treatment group and control group in body weight gain and food efficiency ratio. It also showed decreases on plasma triglyceride and total-cholesterol concentration compared to the control group. But there was no change in plasma leptin concentration between the control and mulberry treatment groups. These results suggest that mulberry leaves reduce serum lipid levels, but do not effect the plasma leptin concentration.

• International Journal of Industrial Entomology and Biomaterials
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.121-126
• /
• 2007

Obesity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. In our case study using animal models for disease states such as obesity or hypertension, we found that, Isaria sinclairii remarkably reduced body weight and ameliorated metabolic abnormalities in Zucker and SHR rats. Genetically obese (fa/fa) Zucker rats were one animal model chosen for this study. Four groups of rats received a standard diet and were treated orally with the following test samples daily for 8 weeks: saline (negative control), ethanol extracts of I. sinclairii, hot water extract of I. sinclairii, or $Xenical^{(R)}$ (30 mg/kg, positive control). Mild reductions (6.3%) in body weight gain were observed in the groups treated with the hot water extract of I. sinclairii compared to the control after 8 weeks. Interestingly, organ weight was greatly reduced by this Dongchunghacho (I. sinclairii), in parallel with the mild reductions in body weight gain and reductions in abdominal fat (adipose tissue). Also observed was a 4.1 % decrease in the ratio of heart weight/body weight compared to the control group. As a hypertensive animal model, SHR (spontaneously hypertensive rat) and WKY (Wistar Kyoto) rats were also administered these extracts for one month. Treatment with the hot water extract of I. sinclairii caused greater reductions in body weight gain for the SHR group (10.9%) compared to the WKY group's (5.2%). Based on these results, I. sinclairii extracts contain selective action for anti-obesity activity, naturally occurring candidate for regulation of body weight increase, as demonstrated in the present study.