Volume 175, 4 December 2015, Pages 335–345
Abstract
Ethnopharmacological relevance
Obesity
is a worldwide medical concern. New ethnobotanical information
regarding the antiobesity effect of medicinal plants has been obtained
in the last 30 years in response to socio-demographic changes and
high-fat diets became common.
Aim of the study
This
review provides a summary of medicinal plants used in Mexico, Central
America and the Caribbean for the empirical treatment of obesity in
terms of ethnobotany, toxicity, pharmacology, conservation status, trade
and chemistry.
Materials and methods
Bibliographic
investigation was performed by analyzing recognized books,
undergraduate and postgraduate theses and peer-reviewed scientific
articles, consulting worldwide accepted scientific databases from the
last four decades. Medicinal plants used for the treatment of obesity
were classified in two categories: (1) plants with pharmacological
evidence and (2) plants without pharmacological evidence.
Results
A
total of 139 plant species, belonging to 61 families, native to Mexico,
Central America and the Caribbean that are used for the empirical
treatment of obesity were recorded. From these plants, 33 were
investigated in scientific studies, and 106 plants lacked scientific
investigation. Medicinal plants were experimentally studied in vitro (21 plants) and in vivo
(16 plants). A total of 4 compounds isolated from medicinal plants used
for the empirical treatment of obesity have been tested in vitro (2 compounds) and in vivo (4 compounds) studies. No clinical trials on obese subjects (BMI>30 kg/m2)
have been performed using the medicinal plants cited in this review.
There are no herbal-based products approved in Mexico for the treatment
of obesity.
Conclusions
There
are a limited number of scientific studies published on medicinal plants
from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean used for the treatment
of obesity. This review highlights the need to perform pharmacological,
phytochemical, toxicological and ethnobotanical studies with medicinal
flora to obtain new antiobesity agents.
Graphical Abstract
Chemical compounds studied in this article
- Capsaicin (CID: 1548943);
- Chlorogenic acid (CID: 1794427);
- Simmondsin (CID: 6437384)
Keywords
- Antiobesity;
- Lipase;
- Lipid accumulation;
- Weight loss;
- Medicinal plants;
- Mesoamerica
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