ANTI-OBESITY ACTIVITY AND GUT BACTERIA MODULATION IN HIGH

ABSTRACT

Overweight and obesity can be defined as abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat that present a risk to health. In Nigeria, the prevalence of overweight individuals ranges from 20.3%-35.1% while the prevalence of obesity ranges from 8.1%-22.2%. In the past ten years, the gut microbiota has been identified as a crucial player affecting the pathogenesis and management of obesity. To this end, this study aimed to evaluate the anti-obesity activity and gut bacteria modulation in high-fat-diet-induced obesity using crude methanol extract and isolated flavonoids of Citrus limon juice. This study entailed a preliminary evaluation of the phytochemical constituents of the crude methanol extract using High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Acute, sub-acute toxicity and dose response studies were evaluated. The obesity study had six groups with 6 rats each, two untreated control groups with four treated groups (probiotics, isolated flavonoids, methanol extract and standard drug). Experimental obesity was induced by feeding with high-fat-diet ad libitum. Furthermore, gut bacteria modulation was assessed by determining the fecal and cecal bacteria of the rat stools using microbial and biochemical assays. In addition, biochemical, hormonal, inflammatory, gene expression and histological studies were carried out on various samples from the rats.