Effect of an herbal extract Number Ten (NT) on body weight in rats

David A York¹^,3 , Sonyja Thomas¹ , Frank L Greenway¹ , Zhijun Liu² and Jennifer C Rood¹

¹Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University System, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70808, USA

²Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA

³Center for Advanced Nutrition, Utah State University, 4715 Old Main Hill, Logan, Utah 84322, USA

author email corresponding author email

Chinese Medicine 2007, 2:10doi:10.1186/1749-8546-2-10


Published:	14 September 2007

Abstract

Background

Chinese herbal extract Number Ten (NT) is a dietary herbal formulation prepared from rhubarb, ginger, astragalus, red sage and tumeric. This study tested the effectiveness of NT in reducing body weight gain in rats.

Methods

Sixty female Wistar rats were fed a high fat diet and acclimated to gavage feeding. The rats were divided into five treatment groups: (1) Control (n = 15); (2) NT-H (n = 15), 1.5 g/day; (3) NT-L (n = 10), 0.75 g/day; (4) Pr-fed (n = 10), pair fed to NT-H; (5) d-FF (n = 10), d-fenfluramine 2 mg/kg. Ten rats per group were sacrificed on day 56. Weight, food intake, clinical chemistry and body composition were evaluated. Five animals in the control and 1.5 g/day NT groups were left untreated during a two week recovery period.

Results

The 0.75 g/day NT, 1.5 g/day NT, d-fenfluramine and pair fed groups gained 24.6%, 33.3%, 12.3% and 33.3% less than the control respectively (P < 0.0006). Leptin decreased 27.5% to 46.2% in the treatment groups vs. control (P < 0.009). Parametrial fat decreased 14.1% to 55.5% in the NT and pair fed groups vs. control (P < 0.006). The NT groups had soft stools, loss of hair around the mouth and coloration to the urine and stool without evidence of blood or bilirubin (attributed to chromogens in NT). There were no differences between groups in the clinical chemistry.

Conclusion

This study demonstrated the efficacy of NT in reducing weight gain in rodents.