Anti-Obesity Effects of Melastoma malabathricum var Alba Linn in Rats Fed with a High-Fat Diet

Obesity is one of the major public health problems worldwide and it is generally associated with many diseases. Although synthetic drugs are available for the treatment of obesity, herbal remedies may provide safe, natural, and cost-effective alternative to synthetic drugs. One example of such drugs is Melastoma malabathricum var Alba Linn (MM). Although several studies have been reported for the pharmacological activities of MM, there is no report on the anti-obesity effect of MM. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the anti-obesity potential of methanolic extract of MM. The anti-obesity effect of MM on rats fed with a high-fat diet was investigated through determination of the changes in body weight, fat weight, organ weights, and blood biochemicals. The animals in this study were divided into three groups: a normal group with a standard diet (N), a control group fed with high-fat diet (C), and a MM treatment group fed with high-fat (HFD + MM) diet for 8 weeks. There was no significant difference in the amount of food intake between control and HFD + MM treatments. These results also suggest that MM does not induce a dislike for the diet due to its smell or taste. The study shows that MM significantly prevented increases in body weight, cholesterol, LDL, HDL, and total lipids that resulted from the high-fat diet. MM also decreased the epididymal fat (E-fat) and retroperitoneal fat (R-fat) weights and phospholipid concentrations induced by the high-fat diet. On the basis of these findings, it was concluded that MM had anti-obesity effects by suppressing body weight gain and abdominal fat formation.KEY WORDS: Anti-obesity, High-fat diet, Melastoma malabathricum var Alba Linn