Screening of some medicinal plant extracts for their lipoprotein lipase inhibition activity

Background: Obesity is an epidemic health problem, affecting all population and different age groups. It is associated with many health conditions as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, atherosclerosis as well as metabolic syndrome. Lifestyle changes and pharmacological therapies have been used for obesity treatment, but have not accomplished the expected to minimize the increasing rate of obesity worldwide. A wide range of herbal extracts has been reported to be useful in obesity treatment which suggests herbal medicine as potential candidate for obesity management. The aim of this study is to explore plant potential to counteract obesity threats. Methods: Methanolic extract of 20 medicinal plants, belonging to 11 different families were assayed spectrophotometrically for their LPL inhibition activity. Results: 11 out of 20 extracts have an inhibitory effect on LPL enzyme that ranges between 32.92% and 11.96%. The most active plant is Onosma giganteum Lam. (32.92%) followed by Hypecoum dimidiatum Delile (29.04%) and Chrysanthemum coronarium L. (27.81%). Conclusion: Herbal medicinal plants represent potential candidates to be implemented in new therapeutic era. Our results have shown that 11 out of 20 tested plants have LPL inhibition activity, for a certain extent. However, further studies are needed to investigate their potential activity in vivo to develop new anti-obesity treatment