Various epidemiological studies support that inulin improves the intestinal environment and decreases the risk of obesity. The same as host feeding rhythms, gut microbiota itself displays daily fluctuations in composition and function. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influences of intervention time of inulin to alleviate high‐fat diet (HFD)‐induced obesity based on chrono‐nutrition. Male C57BL/6J mice were given HFD and gavaged inulin at light‐on time (HFM) or light‐off time (HFN) daily. Energy expenditure (EE), 16S rRNA sequencing in colonic contents, and short‐chain fatty acids (SCFAs) analysis were carried out after 12 weeks. Both in HFM and HFN group, the HFD‐induced weight gain was significantly reduced by 20.91% and 23.32%, and the mice in HFN group showed no significant difference in weight gain with the control group. Besides, mice in HFN group showed a tendency to increase EE and fecal SCFAs contents in addition to the relative content of colonic beneficial bacteria. As the light‐off period of mice is their active period, these results suggested that inulin intake at active period exhibited relatively stronger effects on ameliorating obesity and improving the gut microbial environment.
Proanthocyanidins is a kind of polyphenol that had been found with strong prevention ability on high fat diet induced obesity. However, whether proanthocyanidins with different polymerization degree showed different anti-obesity ability is unclear. Therefore, in this study, the effects of persimmon proanthocyanidins (P-PCs) and persimmon oligo-proanthocyanidins (P-OPCs) on high-fat diet induced obesity were systematically investigated. The findings indicated that both of P-PCs and P-OPCs significantly reduced the body weight, and P-PCs showed stronger anti-obesity ability compared with P-OPCs, P-OPCs seemed with stronger ability on improvement of insulin resistance. Furthermore, gut microbiota results indicated that the composition of the gut microbiota was changed after P-PCs and P-OPCs intervention in C57BL/6J mice. In addition, P-PCs exhibited strong inhibitory on the digestion of starch and fat. Above all, this study indicated that P-PCs showed stronger anti-obesity ability compared with P-OPCs.
The pericarp of mangosteen, a by-product of the mangosteen, is rich in polyphenols. In this study, an efficient and environmentally friendly method for preparative enrichment of polyphenols from mangosteen pericarp (MPPs) was developed, and the inhibitory effects on starch digestion were also evaluated. It was found that the optimal extract method of MPPs was at a solid to solvent ratio of 1:50 g/mL, pH of 2, and at 80 °C for 2 h. The IC50 of MPPs for α-amylase was 0.28 mg/mL. Based on the fluorescence quenching results, we presumed that MPPs could alter the natural structure of α-amylase, resulting in inhibitory activity on α-amylase. In addition, MPPs significantly reduced the blood glucose peak and AUC of glucose responses in rats after ingestion of the starch solution. Taken together, MPPs may have the potential as a functional supplement for blood glucose control and diabetes prevention.
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