Abstract

Charitha Gangadharan, Alben Sigamani and Mohammed Rahmatullah*

ABSTRACT

Obesity is labeled as the disorder of this century as it forms the first step of other serious diseases. Therefore, World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that management of obesity is the most important for healthy living. Obesity can be controlled either through a healthy lifestyle or regulated eating habits. Alternatively, chemically synthesized medicines are also marketed for weight loss programs. However, the application of drugs is mostly disadvantageous as there are many adverse effects associated with their usage. Therefore, the solution lies in finding healthier alternatives developed from plant origins. To assess the alternates, a thorough screening of medicinal plants for anti-obesity properties is mandated. The prime goal of our review was to understand the efficiency of the selected plants, namely, Amaranthus spinosus, Capsicum annuum, Caralluma fimbriata, Cinnamomum verum, Garcinia cambogia, Hoodia gordonii, Moringa oleifera, Phaseolus vulgaris, Lagenaria siceraria, and Ziziphus jujuba against obesity through secondary research methods. Based on the available literature, our study showed that even though most of the plants are traditionally known for their anti-obesity characteristics, not much published information is available at the clinical level. Moreover, our review highlights the requirement of in vitro, experimental, preclinical and clinical methods to develop alternate plant-based formulations. In addition, there is a huge gap in research for most of the plants in terms of phytochemistry and their mechanism of action. It was also observed that majority of the studies did not test any associated complications. Therefore, there is a lot of scope of research in this field.