Effect of methanol extracts of three dietary plants growing in Egypt on mice fed with high fat diet

Abstract

The objective of the present investigation was to evaluate the preventive effect of methanol extracts of three dietary plants growing in Egypt; Cassia fistula (Family Fabaceae), Cynara scolymus (Family Asteraceae) and Glycine max (Family fabaceae) on body weight gain, hepatic and kidney index, food intake, lipid profile and serum enzymes in mice fed high fat diet during different periods 4, 11 and 17 weeks. For this purpose, the mice were divided into groups of eight mice each group as follows; normal group, high fat diet (HFD) group , HFD + methanol extract of C. fistula group, HFD + Methanol extract of C. scolymus group and HFD + methanol extract of G. max group, the dose of plant extract in each treated group was 100 mg /Kg body weight. After 4 weeks to 17 weeks the body weight, the relative liver weight, lipid profile and serum enzymes increased in the control group (HFD) compared to the normal. Treatment with each plant plant extract led to reduction in body weight and improvement of lipid and serum enzymes of the treated mice compared to the control groups. Extract of G.max showed the highest activity. These results were supported by hepatic histology examination which showed improvement of fatty liver tissue.