Effects of 12‐week Oral Supplementation of Ecklonia cava Polyphenols on Anthropometric and Blood Lipid Parameters in Overweight Korean Individuals: A Double‐blind Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract

The effects of 12-week supplementation with a polyphenol extract from Ecklonia cava (ECP) on anthropometry, serum biochemistry and hematology have been investigated. Ninety-seven overweight male and female adults (average age 40.5 ± 9.2 yr and body mass index (BMI) of 26.5 ± 1.6 kg/m²) were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with parallel-group design. Subjects were randomly allocated into three groups designated as PC (placebo), LD (low-dose, 72 mg-ECP/day) and HD (high-dose, 144 mg-ECP/day). Both LD and HD groups showed significant decreases in BMI, body fat ratio, waist circumference, waist/hip ratio, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and atherogenic index (AI) after 12 weeks, as compared with the placebo group. The HD group also showed a significant increase in serum HDL cholesterol as compared with the placebo group. Only the HD group showed significant decreases in serum glucose and systolic blood pressure after 12 weeks. There was no significant adverse event related with ingestion of ECP, and serum biochemical and hematological parameters were maintained within normal range during the intervention period. In conclusion, these results demonstrated that ECP supplementation significantly contributed to lowering body fat and serum lipid parameters such as total and LDL cholesterols with dose dependence. Further studies using different populations, dosages or biological markers are highly recommended to better understand the physiological features of this polyphenol.

Clinical Trial of the Hypolipidemic Effects of a Brown Alga Ecklonia cava Extract in Patients with Hypercholesterolemia

“…Yeo et al (2012) also reported both polyphenols and dieckols isolated from EC did not increase serum HDL-cholesterol levels but significantly lowered total-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride levels in High-Fat Diet (HFD)-fed mice. On the other hand, according to the other studies mentioned above, both extracts from EC (Shin et al, 2012) and ES (Yoon et al, 2008) not only increased HDL-cholesterol levels but also lowered total and LDL-cholesterol levels.…”

“…Shin et al (2012) reported that polyphenols extracted from EC decreased total cholesterol by 9.2% and LDL-cholesterol by 14.2% in overweight human subjects (Shin et al, 2012). The reduction of 2.8% in total cholesterol and the 11.1% for LDL-cholesterol at 12 weeks, obtained with 400 mg dayG 1 of ECE in this study were lower than those obtained by Shin et al (2012) at a dosage of 144 mg dayG 1 from a similar baseline levels, which can be attributed to the different test products used and highlights the need to express the concentration of active substances of these extracts according to quality standards. Yoon et al (2008) reported that extract of Ecklonia stolonifera (ES) and its phlorotannin constituents, eckols and dieckols, reduced total and LDL-cholesterol levels in hyperlipidemic rats.…”

“…Yeo et al (2012) showed that both polyphenols and dieckol isolated from EC inhibited the activity of HMG-CoA reductase. Suppression of fat-induced hepatic damage by anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective activities of EC polyphenols might play a role in improving blood lipids (Shin et al, 2012), based on a report that phlorotannin derived from brown algae protected Hep G2 cells against the cytotoxic effects of tacrine (Kim et al, 2005) and reports regarding that an impaired anti-oxidant system, reduced antioxidant defense potentials and increased peroxidation were found in steatotic liver tissues of hyperlipidemic animals (Arhan et al, 2009).…”

“…Only a few animal studies (Yoon et al, 2008;Yeo et al, 2012) and one Randomized Clinical Trial (RCT) (Shin et al, 2012) have been reported regarding the anti-lipidemic effects of these materials, although studies on marine algal polyphenols have increased exponentially since the 1970s, when reports on them and their tannin characteristics began to appear (Martinez and Castaneda, 2013).…”

Safety and adherence of Umezu polyphenols in the Japanese plum (Prunus mume) in a 12-week double-blind randomized placebo-controlled pilot trial to evaluate antihypertensive effects

“…These results are partially consistent with findings of the present study. In another 12-week RCT among overweight Korean adults [30], a polyphenol extract from Ecklonia cava significantly contributed to lowering body fat and serum lipid parameters such as total and LDL cholesterols with dose dependence. It also had some BP-lowering effects, although its doseresponse effect was not significant.…”