Effects of three Chinese herbal medicines on plasma and liver lipids in mice fed a high-fat diet.

Abstract

Chinese herbal medicines, Inchinko-to, Bofu-tsusho-san and Dai-saiko-to, containing 3, 18 and 8 components, respectively, have since long been used as an anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, choleretic and diuretic agent for liver disorders and jaundice, as an anti-obesity agent, a hypocholesterolemic agent for liver disorders and a therapeutic and/or preventive agent for cholesterol gallstone disease with hypertriglycerid-emia in China and Japan, respectively. In the present study, we investigated the effects of these three herbal medicines in young male mice fed a high-fat diet. Plasma levels of lipids and the numbers of the fatty droplets in the liver cytoplasm were markedly lowered by the diets supplemented with three herbal medicines. The liver weights and the body growth were reduced by the diet supplemented with Dai-saiko-to, which slightly affected the concentrations of total protein, albumin, creatinine or calcium, and the activity of lactate dehydrogenase. Thus, Dai-saiko-to, besides Bofu-tsusho-san, seems effective in the activities of anti-obesity, anti-hyperlipidemia and anti-hyperlipids in liver cytoplasm, when used carefully.

• Authors: Tohru Nakayama, Satoe Suzuki, Hideki Kudo, Shuji Sassa, Makoto Nomura, Shinobu Sakamoto
• Journal: Journal of ethnopharmacology (J Ethnopharmacol) Vol. 109 Issue 2 Pg. 236-40 (Jan 19 2007) ISSN: 0378-8741 [Print] Ireland
• PMID: 16962271 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Dietary Fats
• Drugs, Chinese Herbal
• Lipids

Topics

• Animals
• Body Weight (drug effects)
• Diet
• Dietary Fats (pharmacology)
• Drugs, Chinese Herbal (pharmacology)
• Lipid Metabolism (drug effects)
• Lipids (blood)
• Liver (drug effects, metabolism, pathology)
• Male
• Medicine, Chinese Traditional
• Mice
• Mice, Inbred ICR
• Organ Size (drug effects)