Herbal medicines applied to obesity

The study aimed to investigate scientific evidence on the use of herbal medicines "Camellia sinensis", "Citrus aurantium" and "Carthamus tinctorius" to help weight loss. In the development of this research we carried out systematic bibliographical studies on PubMed, ScienceDirect and Scielo databases between the years 2000-2014. According to the studies found, green tea extract of Camellia sinensis has several active ingredients, among which catechin stands out, which inhibits the enzyme catechol-o-methyltransferase, responsible for degrading norepinephrine by prolonging the effect of adenosine 3', 5'-cyclic monophosphate on thermogenesis mainly mediated by noradrenaline in combination with caffeine. Citrus aurantiums, due to the synephrine action, stimulates the action of the [beta]3-receptors, accelerating lipolysis, and increases basal metabolism through thermogenesis, causing weight reduction. Carthamus tinctorius, through the action of linoleic acid, inhibits the enzyme lipoproteinlipase, responsible for carrying triglycerides from the blood to the interior of adipocytes, helping reduce weight, while oleic acid stimulates the enzyme carnitine palmitoltranferase that mobilizes fatty acids into the mitochondria causing the [beta]-oxidation process that contributes to weight loss. It was possible to understand that despite the herbal medicines investigated have shown satisfactory results, data are still incomplete and require further research. Keywords: Obesity. Phytotherapy. Emaciation. Lipolysis.