Combinations of Tibetan tea and medicine food homology herbs: A new strategy for obesity prevention

Ye Yuan; Bin Zhang; Jing-Liu He; Ting Wei; De-Jun Liu; Wen-Jun Yang; Cheng-Yi Guo; Xu-Qiang Nie

doi:10.1002/fsn3.3081

Combinations of Tibetan tea and medicine food homology herbs: A new strategy for obesity prevention

Food Sci Nutr. 2022 Sep 28;11(1):504-515. doi: 10.1002/fsn3.3081. eCollection 2023 Jan.

Authors

Ye Yuan^{1

2}, Bin Zhang¹, Jing-Liu He¹, Ting Wei¹, De-Jun Liu¹, Wen-Jun Yang¹, Cheng-Yi Guo¹, Xu-Qiang Nie^{2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy & Medical Laboratory Ya'an Polytechnic College Ya'an China.
² College of Pharmacy Zunyi Medical University Zunyi China.
³ Key Laboratory of the Basic Pharmacology of the Ministry of Education Zunyi Medical University Zunyi China.
⁴ Joint International Research Laboratory of Ethnomedicine of Chinese Ministry of Education Zunyi Medical University Zunyi China.

Abstract

Obesity has become a significant global public health problem. Functional drinks have been an essential direction for obesity prevention research. The present study investigated the preventive effect and safety of winter melon and lotus leaf Tibetan tea (WLTT, a compound tea drink based on Ya'an Tibetan Tea and medicine food homology herbs) on obesity. The rats' hypercaloric high-fat diet (HFD) obesity model was established to evaluate obesity prevention and explored the mechanism through intestinal flora regulation. The results showed that in obese rats with the intervention of WLTT (400, 800, and 1600 mg/kg BW), the body weight, fat accumulation, adipocyte cell size, serum lipid levels, and antioxidant enzyme activity (SOD, GSH-Px, and MDA) were progressively improved. 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing showed that WLTT could improve intestinal flora disorders due to HFD, which significantly reversed the relative abundance of Firmicutes and the F/B ratio associated with an HFD, and significantly upregulated the relative abundance of Verrucomicrobia. At the genus level, the downregulation of the relative abundance of Akkermansia and unclassified_Lachnospiraceae groups, and the upregulation of the relative abundance of Romboutsia, Ruminococcus, Corynebacteriume, and Saccharibacteria_genera_incertae_sedis groups brought about by the HFD were significantly reversed. The results of the above experiments were compared favorably with those of a parallel experiment with Bi -Sheng -Yuan slimming tea (BSY, a functional drink based on green tea and medicine food homology herbs). Overall, the findings have provided that WLTT can prevent obesity owing to an HFD by regulating intestinal flora and has a good safety profile, and combinations of Tibetan tea and medicine food homology herbs could be a new option for obesity prevention.

Keywords: Winter Melon Lotus Leaf Tibetan Tea (WLTT); hypercaloric high‐fat diet (HFD); intestinal flora; obesity; safety evaluation.