Anti-Obesity Potential of Gallic Acid from Labisia pumila, through Augmentation of Adipokines in High Fat Diet Induced Obesity in C57BL/6 Mice

Aims: The incidence of obesity has increased at an alarming rate in recent years, becoming a worldwide health problem. Anti-obesity drugs available have hazardous side-effects, thus, a wide variety of natural materials are being explored for their anti-obesity potential. This study was undertaken to investigate the activity of Gallic acid (GA), a compound isolated from aqueous leaf extract from Labisia pumila (LPPM/A003) on its potential to prevent obesity.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out at Department of Pharmacology, Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Council of Scientific and industrial research, Jammu (J and K) for duration of 12 months.

Methodology: All the test materials were initially screened for In-vitro adipocyte differentiation. The active sample was selected for In-vivo anti-obesity effect in high fat diet induced obesity in C57BL/6 mice and the biochemical and molecular parameters were measured.

Results: In In-vitro screening, both LPPM/A003 and GA had inhibitory effect on fat droplet formation and triglyceride accumulation. The concentration at which GA showed 50% inhibition was 19.86μg/ml. The In-vivo studies in obese mice decreased the weight in GA treated animals. Excessive secretion of leptin in case of obesity leads to disrupted functions of hypothalamus and GA showed promise by inhibiting Leptin. Obesity is considered as a state of low-grade inflammation and inflammation is regarded as cause or consequence of obesity. It also inhibited the increased expression of TNF- α and IL-6 in serum of treated animals. GA inhibited the increase in serum levels of Triglyceride, LDL and VLDL. HDL levels were elevated at all the dose levels with significant increase at 8mg/kg dose.

Conclusion: Gallic acid is an effective compound capable of modulating diet induced weight gain in obese mice. Research in this field paves the way to discover new treatments for obesity.