Screening of Natural Extracts with Anti-Obesity Activity

RAMIREZ MR,

Mar del Plata

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta 2016 entre la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Clínica (SAIC), la Sociedad Argentina de Inmunología (SAI) y la Sociedad Argentina de Farmacología Experimental (SAFE),; 2016

SAIC

Obesity is a metabolic disease resulting from the excessive accumulation of body fat, which causes health damage human; with substantial losses in the quality of life. Obesity treatments generally involve a combination of dietary modifications, physical activity, pharmacotherapy, and in some cases, surgery. The pancreatic lipase is one of the most studied targets for chemical compounds acting as anti-obesity agents because it is responsible for the hydrolysis of dietary fats in the intestine. The search for novel glucosidase inhibitors is important owing to their therapeutic potential in the treatment of diabetes, metastatic cancer, lysosomal storage disease, between others disorders. Several glycosidase and lipase inhibitors have been discovered from natural sources showing the potential of plant products as a source of such phytocompounds. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the inhibitory potential of the various natural extracts on the digestive enzymes β-glucosidase and lipase in vitro. The samples were also analyzed for antioxidant capacity qualitative and quantitative composition of phytocompounds and nutrients. The determination of chemical compounds was performed by Spectrophotometric methods. The antioxidant capacity was evaluated by the method of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), measuring the absorbance at 517 nm after 30 min. TLC bioautographic methods to detect lipase and β-glucosidase inhibitors in plant extracts were used. Some differences were observed among their chemical compositions and biological activities. Samples were rich in polyphenolics compounds and carotenoids. Additionally, the results suggested that the phenolic compounds was a very important factor responsible for the inhibitory activity against glucosidase and pancreatic lipase. In conclusion, this work suggests that natural products may be a potential source of dietary fat absorption inhibitors. The broad spectrum of the biological activities from the studied plant extracts can be applied as the guideline for the selection of plant species for additional pharmacological investigations.