A comprehensive review on clinically proven medicinal plants in the treatment of overweight and obesity, with mechanistic insights

Md Abdul Aziz; Md Shalahuddin Millat; Tahmina Akter; Md Shahadat Hossain; Md Monirul Islam; Shahriar Mohsin; Farzana Ansari; Asma Kabir; Mohammad Nurul Amin; Mohammad Safiqul Islam

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13493

A comprehensive review on clinically proven medicinal plants in the treatment of overweight and obesity, with mechanistic insights

Heliyon. 2023 Feb 4;9(2):e13493. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13493. eCollection 2023 Feb.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy, State University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, 1205, Bangladesh.
² Department of Pharmacy, Noakhali Science and Technology University, Sonapur, 3814, Bangladesh.
³ Department of Pharmacy, Atish Dipankar University of Science and Technology, Dhaka, 1230, Bangladesh.
⁴ Center of Molecular Biotechnology, University of Bonn, 53115 Bonn, Germany.
⁵ Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Laboratory of Nutrition and Health Research, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, 1000, Bangladesh.
⁶ Pratyasha Health Biomedical Research Center, Dhaka, 1230, Bangladesh.

Abstract

Background and objectives: Obesity has become a global health issue, more precisely, a pandemic throughout the present world due to its high prevalence in the recent era. Increased risk of morbidity and mortality in obese patients can be attributed to its association with the development of different life-threatening conditions. Plants are considered one of the most important sources of bioactive molecules which are used against a wide range of health disorders. This systematic review explores the efficacy as well as the safety profile of commonly used medicinal plants in the management of obesity that may help people to maintain a healthy weight.

Methods: This review is based on comprehensive literature searches from PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases using the keywords- "plants in obesity", "plants used in weight reduction" or keywords that are similar to those. Medicinal plants which have been clinically proven for their anti-obesity effect have only been selected for this study and attempts to investigate beneficial effects and adverse effects along with their mechanism of action have also been taken in this review.

Results: A significant reduction of weight in both human and other animals are exhibited by the extracts of Phaseolus vulgaris, green coffee, Yerba Mate, green tea, Gynostemma pentaphyllum, and the combination of Cissus quadrangularis/Irvingia gabonensis. All of those plant extracts seemed to work on different physiological pathways and none of those extracts showed any notable adverse effects in human or animal models.

Conclusion: Our review suggests that the discussed medicinal plants are effective in reducing the weight of obese patients without causing notable adverse reactions. Although further study is necessary to confirm their exact molecular mechanism and safety in human use.

Keywords: Cissus quadrangularis; Green coffee; Green tea; Gynostemma pentaphyllum; Irvingia gabonensis; Obesity; Phaseolus vulgaris; Weight loss; Yerba mate.

Publication types

Review