Anti-obesity potential of selected medicinal plants: A focused study on in vitro inhibitory effects on lipase, α-amylase and α-glucosidase enzymes.

Obesity is a prominent global public health challenge. Current drugs used for its treatment have significant side effects. Medicinal plants, rich in phytochemicals, offer anti-obesity effects through various mechanisms, including enzyme inhibition. The current research evaluated ethanolic extracts from more than 100 plants to address obesity. The dried plant organs were ground and macerated in ethanol 70 % to generate powder extracts. Physalis minima (62.5 %) and Terminalia chebula (59.1 %) yielded the highest amount of extracts. The antioxidant activity of the extracts was determined using the scavenging of free radical DPPH and total phenolic content. Their ability to inhibit α-amylase, α-glucosidase, and pancreatic lipase (enzymes linked to obesity) was also a source of variation in vitro. Among the plants, Bistorta polygonum exhibited the lowest IC50 (1.43 ppm) in the DPPH test, and Semecarpus anacardium showed the highest total phenol content (54.21 mg GAE/g). We found that Ginkgo biloba (1000 ppm) inhibited pancreatic lipase (81.48 %), Cinnamomum cassia inhibited α-amylase (78.44 %), and Punica granatum inhibited α-glucosidase (101.55 %). A significant (P ≤ 0.05) correlation exists between antioxidant properties and enzyme inhibition. Some plants may focus on a single function due to variations in their chemical compositions. The extracts of Semecarpus anacardium (Anacardiaceae), Myristica fragrans (Myristicaceae), Cinnamomum cassia (Lauraceae), Rhus coriaria (Anacardiaceae), and Ephedra sinica (Ephedraceae) exhibited highly effective inhibitory activities against all three enzymes, making them promising candidates for obesity treatment. Many of these extracts originate in plants already consumed in the human diet. Thus, they could potentially be novel remedies for obesity treatment.