Abstract:
Obesity increases the risk of developing a number of diseases such as insulin resistance, type 2
diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, stroke and heart attack. The aim of this study was to
investigate the impact of ethanolic root bark extract of Anthocleista vogelii on weight reduction in high
carbohydrate diet (HCD) induced obesity in male Wistar rats. Thirty male Wistar rats were housed in
three steel cages containing 10 rats each. For the period of obesity induction, Group 1 was fed with
normal pellet diet (NPD), while Groups 2 and 3 were fed with HCD for 14 weeks. During the 4 weeks
treatment period, Group 1 was fed with NPD, Groups 2 and 3 were fed with HCD, and only Group 3
received 500 mg/kg b.w A. vogelii extract. The ethanolic root bark extract of A. vogelii significantly
decreased (P<0.05) food intake, body weight, total fat mass, adiposity index and low density lipoprotein
cholesterol, but showed no significant difference (P<0.05) in body mass index, total cholesterol,
triglycerides, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, very low density lipoprotein cholesterol when
compared with the HCD obese control. The results indicated that the ethanolic root bark extract of
Anthocleista vogelii has potential to reduce weight in animals.
