Anti-Obesity Activity Of Hot Red Pepper (Capsicum Annum L.)In Experimental Rats

Abstract

Obesity is implicated as a risk factor for multiple medical conditions including diabetes, heart diseases, hepatic diseases and others. The main goal of this study was to identify the main components of red pepper (RP), and to investigate the anti-obesity effect of (RP) flesh and (RP) seeds on biochemical alteration elicited by high fat high sucrose (HFHS) diet. Obesity was induced by feeding adult male albino rats (440 g fat and 220 g sucrose/kg diet) for eight weeks.The results of RP analysis revealed that each 100g of fresh RP contains 90.2 g% moisture, 2.19% protein , 4.61 g% carbohydrate, while fat content was 1.9 g%, both ash and crude fiber content were the same about 0.7 g%, it also contains 141.2 mg% vitamin C, 13.6 mg% calcium and 1.03mg % iron . HPLC analysis showed that RP flesh contains 1.08 g% capsaicin and RP seeds contain 2.72 g% capsaicin. The results of the biological trial indicated that (HFHS) diet caused a significant increase in body weight and lee’s index and also showed a reduction in food intake. In addition there was a significant increase in serum glucose , insulin , total cholesterol (TC), triacylglycerols (TAG), very low density lipoprotein(VLDL-C), low density lipoproteins (LDL-C), total lipid (TL), and phospholipid with a significant decrease in high density lipoproteins (HDL-C) in untreated obese rats when compared with normal healthy controls . Obesity is also associated with a significant increase in serum leptin and insulin like growth factor 1(IGF-1), whereas there was a significant decrease in serum adiponectin and glucose-6 phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD). The results revealed that RP flesh or RP seeds attenuate the biological and biochemical alteration of HFHS diet in the experimental rats. The anti-obesity effect of RP flesh and RP seeds was evident through the significant reduction in body weight reached 26.1% and 26% by RP flesh and RP seeds respectively compared to control group, similarly administration of RP flesh/ RP seeds decreased the food intake and lee’s index. Moreover, RP flesh /RP seeds decreased leptin by 47.3% and 52.6% respectively compared to HFHS group, also significantly increased adiponectin by 119.35% compared to HFHS group. In addition it decreased glucose level reached (43.8% and 44.5 %) by RP flesh and RP seeds respectively compare to HFHS group. Treatment also, significantly improved insulin, homeostasis model assessment-estimated insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), (G6PD), (IGF1) and lipid profile.