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Effects of Saponins on Lipid Metabolism: A Review of Potential Health Benefits in the Treatment of Obesity

Obesity is one of the greatest public health problems. This complex condition has reached epidemic proportions in many parts of the world, and it constitutes a risk factor for several chronic disorders, such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. In the last few decades, sever...

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Autores principales: Marrelli, Mariangela, Conforti, Filomena, Araniti, Fabrizio, Statti, Giancarlo A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6273086/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27775618
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules21101404
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author Marrelli, Mariangela
Conforti, Filomena
Araniti, Fabrizio
Statti, Giancarlo A.
author_facet Marrelli, Mariangela
Conforti, Filomena
Araniti, Fabrizio
Statti, Giancarlo A.
author_sort Marrelli, Mariangela
collection PubMed
description Obesity is one of the greatest public health problems. This complex condition has reached epidemic proportions in many parts of the world, and it constitutes a risk factor for several chronic disorders, such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. In the last few decades, several studies dealt with the potential effects of natural products as new safe and effective tools for body weight control. Saponins are naturally-occurring surface-active glycosides, mainly produced by plants, whose structure consists of a sugar moiety linked to a hydrophobic aglycone (a steroid or a triterpene). Many pharmacological properties have been reported for these compounds, such as anti-inflammatory, immunostimulant, hypocholesterolemic, hypoglycemic, antifungal and cytotoxic activities. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of recent studies about the anti-obesity therapeutic potential of saponins isolated from medicinal plants. Results on the in vitro and in vivo activity of this class of phytochemicals are here presented and discussed. The most interesting findings about their possible mechanism of action and their potential health benefits in the treatment of obesity are reported, as well.
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spelling pubmed-62730862018-12-28 Effects of Saponins on Lipid Metabolism: A Review of Potential Health Benefits in the Treatment of Obesity Marrelli, Mariangela Conforti, Filomena Araniti, Fabrizio Statti, Giancarlo A. Molecules Review Obesity is one of the greatest public health problems. This complex condition has reached epidemic proportions in many parts of the world, and it constitutes a risk factor for several chronic disorders, such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. In the last few decades, several studies dealt with the potential effects of natural products as new safe and effective tools for body weight control. Saponins are naturally-occurring surface-active glycosides, mainly produced by plants, whose structure consists of a sugar moiety linked to a hydrophobic aglycone (a steroid or a triterpene). Many pharmacological properties have been reported for these compounds, such as anti-inflammatory, immunostimulant, hypocholesterolemic, hypoglycemic, antifungal and cytotoxic activities. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of recent studies about the anti-obesity therapeutic potential of saponins isolated from medicinal plants. Results on the in vitro and in vivo activity of this class of phytochemicals are here presented and discussed. The most interesting findings about their possible mechanism of action and their potential health benefits in the treatment of obesity are reported, as well. MDPI 2016-10-20 /pmc/articles/PMC6273086/ /pubmed/27775618 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules21101404 Text en © 2016 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Marrelli, Mariangela
Conforti, Filomena
Araniti, Fabrizio
Statti, Giancarlo A.
Effects of Saponins on Lipid Metabolism: A Review of Potential Health Benefits in the Treatment of Obesity
title Effects of Saponins on Lipid Metabolism: A Review of Potential Health Benefits in the Treatment of Obesity
title_full Effects of Saponins on Lipid Metabolism: A Review of Potential Health Benefits in the Treatment of Obesity
title_fullStr Effects of Saponins on Lipid Metabolism: A Review of Potential Health Benefits in the Treatment of Obesity
title_full_unstemmed Effects of Saponins on Lipid Metabolism: A Review of Potential Health Benefits in the Treatment of Obesity
title_short Effects of Saponins on Lipid Metabolism: A Review of Potential Health Benefits in the Treatment of Obesity
title_sort effects of saponins on lipid metabolism: a review of potential health benefits in the treatment of obesity
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6273086/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27775618
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules21101404
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