Antiobesity effect of Bauhinia variegata bark extract on female rats fed on hypercaloric diet

ed/indexed in Academic Search Complete, Agroforestry Abstracts, Asia Journals Online, Bangladesh Journals Online, Biological Abstracts, BIOSIS Previews, CAB Abstracts, Current Abstracts, Directory of Open Access Journals, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Google Scholar, HINARI (WHO), International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Open J-gate, Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index ISSN: 1991-007X (Print); 1991-0088 (Online); DOI: 10.3329/bjp.v5i1.4310 Antiobesity effect of Bauhinia variegata bark extract on female rats fed on hypercaloric diet G. Balamurugan and P. Muralidharan Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, C. L. Baid Metha College of Pharmacy, Old Mahabalipuram Road, Jyothi Nagar, Thoraipakkam, Chennai 97,Tamil Nadu, India. Abstract The present study was carried out to investigate the antiobesity effect of methanolic extract of stem and root barks of Bauhinia variegata Linn in female rats fed with hypercaloric diet. Obesity was induced by administration of hypercaloric diet for 40 days. The plant extract (at the tested doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight) exhibited a significant hypolipidemic effect and thus reduced the obesity. The body weight and feed intake was reduced significantly. Treatment of obese animals with the methanolic extract of B. variegata exhibited an increased brain serotonin level and high density lipoprotein with a concomitant decrease in total cholesterol, triglycerides and low density lipoprotein. Thus the study indicates that the antiobesity activity of methanolic extract of B. variegata could be attributed to the presence of βsitosterol in the stems and the tendency of the extract to reduce lipid profile and elicit the brain serotonin level. Article InfoThe present study was carried out to investigate the antiobesity effect of methanolic extract of stem and root barks of Bauhinia variegata Linn in female rats fed with hypercaloric diet. Obesity was induced by administration of hypercaloric diet for 40 days. The plant extract (at the tested doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight) exhibited a significant hypolipidemic effect and thus reduced the obesity. The body weight and feed intake was reduced significantly. Treatment of obese animals with the methanolic extract of B. variegata exhibited an increased brain serotonin level and high density lipoprotein with a concomitant decrease in total cholesterol, triglycerides and low density lipoprotein. Thus the study indicates that the antiobesity activity of methanolic extract of B. variegata could be attributed to the presence of βsitosterol in the stems and the tendency of the extract to reduce lipid profile and elicit the brain serotonin level. Article Info Received: 30 January 2010 Accepted: 15 March 2010 Available Online: 20 April 2010