Exploiting Anti-Obesity Mechanism of Clerodendrum Phlomidis Against Two Different Models of Rodents

Roots of Clerodendrum phlomidis are used by the local people of Dibrugarh district of Assam state India as a dietary supplement for treating weight issues and are also mentioned in the traditional system of Indian medicine as a remedy for obesity. We examined the anti-obesity effect of Clerodendrum phlomidis (family Verbenaceae) L. roots against cafeteria diet (CD) and progesterone-induced obesity. In CD-induced model obesity was induced by feeding CD for 48-days and increase in body weight and fat storage was suppressed co-administration with methanolic extract of Clerodendrum phlomidis (MECP) at 400 mg/kg. Blood analysis showed that the levels of triglyceride and cholesterol were significantly lowered by MECP administration and there is subsequent rise in HDLcholesterol level. From this experiment, we demonstrated that MECP is effective in ameliorating the CD-induced hyperglycemia, hyperinsulimenia, dyslepidemia, increase in wet weight of white adipose tissue, and hypertrophy of fat cells. In drug induced obesity model hyperphagia was induced by progesterone (10 mg/kg s.c.) for 28 days and was suppressed by co-administration with MECP in dose dependent manner. It is tempting to speculate that these protective effects shown by Clerodendrum phlomidis is by multiple mechanisms. MECP contains β-sitosterol in the abundant quantity because of the structural similarity it do the physical competition with natural sterols while absorption of food stuffs from GIT and moreover the crude saponin and flavonoid has been reported for it’s the appetit suppressant property and hence reduces hyperphagia produced by progesterone. This is the first report demonstrating that Clerodendrum phlomidis is effective in ameliorating insulin resistance and visceral obesity induced by CD and Progesterone. Key words: Adipocyte, cafeteria diet, clerodendrum phlomidis, hyperphagia, hypertrophy, progesterone