THE AMELIORATIVE EFFECT OF METHANOL EXTRACT OF GINGER (zingiber officinale roscoe) ON HIGH FAT DIET INDUCED OBESITY IN RAT.

ABSTRACT

zingiber officinale roscoe  also known as ginger (ZOR) is believed to have some medicinal potential and possess weight reducing ability. this study was conducted to evaluate the ameliorative effect of methanol extract ginger (zingiber officinale roscoe  on the body weight, serum glucose level, lipid profile and liver function of high fat diet (HFD) induced obesity in female wistar rats.  A total of 19 rats (120-150g) were randomly divided into 5 groups, of 4 rats each except normal control groups (NC) which has 3 rats .group 1, normal control (NC) received only normal feed, group 2, was fed with high fat diet only, group 3, was fed with standard drug (ecoslim), while 4-5 where fed with high fat diet and treated with different doses (100 and 200mg/kg)  methanol  extract of  ZOR for two weeks. In this study, the result obtained from glucose level of ZOR shows significant decrease (p<0.05) when compared with control. The lipid profile results shows that there was significant decrease (p<0.05) in cholesterol, triglyceride and HDL in ZOR 200mg group when compared to HFD ONLY. However in LDL, there was a significant increase (P<0.05) in ZOR 200mg  groups when compared with  HFD ONLY. This means that ginger is capable of improving hyperlipidemia.a The liver function result showed that there was a significant increase (p<0.05) in ALT level in ZOR 200mg group when compared with HFD ONLY while in ALP, direct bilirubin and total bilirubin there was no significant difference. this shows that ginger (zingiber officinale rescoe) had little or no effect on the liver function. the study showed that ginger (zingiber officinale roscoe), have several beneficial effects.