Effects of Dietary Supplementation with a Compound Composed of Caffeine, Capsaicin, Sesamine, L-Carnitine, Banaba and Lotus on Human Autonomic Nervous System Activity and Lipid Oxidation

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine if supplementation with a compound composed of caffeine (50 mg), capsaicin (75 mg), sesamine (30 mg), L-carnitine (300 mg), banaba (50 mg) and lotus (10 mg) enhanced human autonomic nervous activities (ANS) associated with thermogenic sympathetic activity and fat utilization. Ten healthy college males (21.2±1.0 yr) volunteered for this experiment. Autonomic nervous activities associated with energy metabolism were examined at 30 min intervals for a total of 120-min while at rest and every 5-min during exercise at 50% of the ventilation threshold before and after intake of the compound or placebo with 100 ml of water for 10 days. In addition, heart rate variability power spectral analysis was used to assess human autonomic nervous activities. The results indicated that there were no significant differences in heart rate during rest and exercise among trials. Furthermore, the autonomic nervous activity tended to increase after 10-days of consumption of the test compounds during the experimental period, but the differences did not reach statistical significance. However, before and after the compound test trial there was a significantly higher respiratory gas exchange ratio (rest 0: 0.83±0.01 vs. rest 3: 0.89±0.02, p<0.05), carbohydrate oxidation (CHO) rate (rest 0: 44.57±5.83 vs. rest 2: 63.86±5.91%, p<0.05) and a lower fat oxidation rate (rest 0: 55.43±5.83 vs. rest 2: 36.14±5.91%, p<0.05. In conclusion, the results of the present study suggested that the compound composed of caffeine, capsaicin, sesamine, L-carnitine, banaba and lotus components that was evaluated in this study did not induce a significant increase in human autonomic nervous activities or lipolysis, even though the individual components have been reported to induce increased fat oxidation.