Metabolic and Epigenetics Action Mechanisms of Antiobesity Medicinal Plants and Phytochemicals

Abstract

Ever-growing research efforts are demonstrating the potential of medicinal plants and their phytochemicals to prevent and manage obesity, either individually or synergistically. Multiple combinations of phytochemicals can result in a synergistic activity that increases their beneficial effects at molecular, cellular, metabolic, and temporal levels, offering advantages over chemically synthesized drug-based treatments. Herbs and their derived compounds have the potential for controlling appetite, inhibiting pancreatic lipase activity, stimulating thermogenesis and lipid metabolism, increasing satiety, promoting lipolysis, regulating adipogenesis, and inducing apoptosis in adipocytes. Furthermore, targeting adipocyte life cycle using various dietary bioactives that affect different stages of adipocyte life cycle represents also an important target in the development of new antiobesity drugs. In this regard, different stages of adipocyte development that are targeted by antiobesity drugs can include preadipocytes, maturing preadipocytes, and mature adipocytes. Various herbal-derived active compounds, such as capsaicin, genistein, apigenin, luteolin, kaempferol, myricetin, quercetin, docosahexaenoic acid, quercetin, resveratrol, and ajoene, affect adipocytes during specific stages of development, resulting in either inhibition of adipogenesis or induction of apoptosis. Although numerous molecular targets that can be used for both treatment and prevention of obesity have been identified, targeted single cellular receptor or pathway has resulted in limited success. In this review, we discuss the state-of-the-art knowledge about antiobesity medicinal plants and their active compounds and their effects on several cellular, molecular, and metabolic pathways simultaneously with multiple phytochemicals through synergistic functioning which might be an appropriate approach to better management of obesity. In addition, epigenetic mechanisms (acetylation, methylation, miRNAs, ubiquitylation, phosphorylation, and chromatin packaging) of phytochemicals and their preventive and therapeutic perspective are explored in this review.

Figure 1

Phytochemicals and their antiobesity action mechanisms. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), (–)–hydroxycitric acid (HCA), and (–)–epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).

Figure 2

Potential action mechanisms by which diet and antioverweight and antiobesity medicinal plants exert their preventive/therapeutic action.

Figure 3

Phytochemicals their effects on adipocyte life cycle. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), (−)−hydroxycitric acid (HCA), and (−)−epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).

Figure 4

Summary of the main metabolic effects of fatty acids that can be mediated by epigenetic mechanisms. PUFA: polyunsaturated fatty acids, MUFA: monounsaturated fatty acids, SFA: saturated fatty acids, SCFA: short-chain fatty acids, EPA: eicosapentaenoic acid, DHA: docosahexanoic acid, AA: arachidonic acid, NCCD: noncommunicable chronic disease, miRNAs: noncoding microRNAs, and IR: insulin resistance [63].