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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
100 P J M H S VOL .6 NO.1 JAN – MAR 2012
Role of Crataegus (Hawthorn) Extract on Obesity in
Hyperlipidemic Albino Rats
SAMINA KAUSAR1, ZUJAJA ZAHEER2, MUDASSARA SAQIB3, BUSHRA ZIA4
ABSTRACT
Background: obesity is on the rise globally and needs measures to maintain optimal body weight as to avoid
complications such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, ischaemic heart disease infertility, sleep
aponea, cancer and osteoarthritis. Crataegus monogyna can help in losing weight by reversing metabolic
alterations that cause increased synthesis and storage of fat.
Study design: It is a case-controlled interventional study of eight weeks.
Sample: 60 adult male albino rats weighing about 250-300g divided randomly into three groups A, B, and C.
Result: Crataegus is effective in lowering body weight.
Conclusion: Crataegus shows tremendous potential as natural weight lowering agent, devoid of side effects.
There is scope of further study and use of this ‘miracle herb’ as anti obesity agent.
Key words: Crataegus monogyna, obesity, BMI
INTRODUCTION
Obesity is from the Latin Obesitas, which means
stout, fat or plump1. The Greeks were the first to
recognize obesity as a medical disorder2. According
to A.D.A.M medical encyclopedia, obesity means
having too much body fat. Excess weight of muscles,
bone, fat and water in the body is overweight. These
two can be differentiated by calculating body mass
index; BMI (weight in kg/height in meter2). BMI=25_30
kg/m2 is overweight and BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 is obese3.
Obesity is on the rise globally reason being
consumption of unhealthy foods and lower levels of
physical activity. According to the centre for disease
control, as of 2009, 49 states have a prevalence of
obesity of 20% or greater and nine states have a
prevalence of over 30%. Obesity is associated with
increased risk of type II diabetes, cardiovascular
disease and several forms of cancer4. In Pakistan the
overall prevalence of obesity and overweight in
educated population is 8 and 29.6% respectively and
together with overweight this prevalence is found to
be sufficiently high5.
The WHO International Agency for Research on
Cancer has estimated that overweight and poor
physical activity accounts for quarter to one third of
all cancers of breast, colon, endometrium, kidney and
esophagus.6 There is a marked increase in
osteoarthritis in obese, in a study it was noted that
each one kg increase in weight was associated with
an increased risk of radiographic features of
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Department of Pharmacology Post Graduate Medical
Institute/LGH1, King Edward Medical university2, Sheikh
Zayad Federal Post Graduate Medical Institute3, Aga Khan
University, Karachi4
Correspondence to Dr. Samina Kausar, Assistant
Professor Email: samina.zia@hotmail.com
osteoarthritis at the knee and carpometacarpal joint7.
Obesity during pregnancy is associated with an
increased risk of complications and is now estimated
to be responsible for 6% primary infertility8.
Researchers from UCLA discovered that as
many as two thirds of all dieters end up weighing
more than they did before their diet within two years9.
This indicates the need of other interventions as
some forms of drugs or herbal medicines which
supplement dieting and weight loss may be
sustained. Different weight reducing and dieting
agents were reviewed for potential toxicity, these
included: syrup of ipecac, cathartics 2,4
Dinitrophenol, guar gum, phenylpropanolamine,
mahuang/ ephedra, caffeine, clenbuterol,
fenfluramine, sibutramine, thyroid hormone, orlistat
and cannabinoid antagonists.10 These weight
reducing agents should be potentially non toxic. One
of such weight reducing agent is found in crataegus
monogyna. Cartages monogyna has acquired a
prominent status in modern herbal literature. The
common name is Hawthorn, Extracts of both flowers
and berries contain mixtures of chlorogenic acid and
flavonoids such as querin hyperoside, vitexin and
vitexin 4 rahmnoside. Other flavonoids identified are
luteolin, apigenin-7-o-glucoside and rutin. It also
contains other major constituents which have anti
inflammatory and antihyperlipidemic properties11.
Hawthorn has also been shown to lower body weight
significantly by reversing metabolic alterations that
drive increased creation and storage of fat12. The
present study was conducted to find out effect of
crataegus monogyna on body weight of albino rats
fed high fat diet.
Samina Kausar, Zujaja Zaheer, Mudassara Saqib et al
P J M H S VOL .6 NO.1 JAN – MAR 2012 101
MATERIALS AND METHODS
It is a case controlled interventional experimental
study that took 8 weeks for completion. 60 adult,
male albino rats weighing about 250-300 grams were
purchased and kept in PGMI animal house. Two
hundred gram of good quality well dried berries of
crataegus monogyna were purchased and ethanolic
extract was prepared in PCSIR laboratories. Extract
was administered in a dose of 0.5 ml /100 g of body
weight per day by gavage. The dose was calculated
on basis of flavonoid content which is 2.2%13. Normal
rat chow contains wheat starch, casein, glucose,
choline/methionine, mineral mixture, vitamin mixture
and fat in quantities of 62.10, 20, 10, 0.50, 3.50,1 and
2.90 grams to make total 100 g of the diet as basic
constituents14, High fat diet (HFD) contained 2g
vegetable oil, 1g cholesterol and 0.3 g bile salt in
100g of normal diet15.
Sixty male albino rats were divided randomly
into three groups (A,B,C). Initially all the groups were
fed on normal rat chow for the first two weeks for
acclimatization, then high fat diet was started to B
and C groups. A group remained on normal diet for
the whole study period of 8 weeks. Group B
remained on high fat diet while group C received
crataegus extract from 4th_8th week along with high fat
diet. Rats were weighed at 0, 4 and 8 weeks by
digital scale.
Parameter: Body weight of rats.
Data analysis: All numerical variables were
represented as mean+standard deviation. The
individual comparison between any two groups was
analyzed by t-test. ANOVA test was used for
comparison of all groups simultaneously. P-value
≤0.05 were considered significant. All analysis was
done through the statistical package SPSS Version 12.
RESULTS
Table 1 shows weight of different groups at zero
week, 4th week and 8th week. Mean weight of all
groups at the start of study ranged from 219.75 to
222.75. At 4th week mean weight of all groups
increased. At 8th week, in group A and B there was
an increase in mean weight. While in group C,
treated with crataegus, there was decrease in mean
weight.
Table 2 shows pair-wise comparison of weights
of all groups at 0, 4 and 8 weeks. It shows that at
zero week difference in weights of all groups is
insignificant which means that at start of study the
weight of rats of all groups was same. At 4th week,
weight of animals in group B and C (HFD) increased
significantly as compared to that of group A (normal
diet). Results of B versus C are insignificant showing
that the weight gain in group C is close to group B. At
8th week, weight of animals in group B is significantly
high as compared to that of group A while weight of
group C animals is significantly low as compared to
group B and close to group A. In fact weight of group
C animals is less than that of group A although not
significant statistically. This data suggests that
crataegus is effective in lowering body weight in
presence of high fat diet.
Table 1: Comparison of body weight (grams) of different groups at 0, 4 and 8 weeks (Values are presented as mean,
standard deviation (SD), minimum (Min.) and maximum (Max.) level of weight)
Groups
0 week
4 weeks
8 weeks
Mean
S.D
Min.
Max
Mean
S.D
Min.
Max
Mean
S.D
Min.
Max
"A" Normal diet
222.75
15.26
190
240
230.95
16.19
200
260
243.75
15.12
220
270
"B" High fat diet
222.25
14.00
200
240
252.75
19.70
220
285
287.50
22.45
245
320
"C" High fat diet +
Crataegus
219.75
15.26
195
240
274.00
22.45
240
320
240.25
19.83
210
290
Table 2: Pair-wise comparison of body weight (Grams) of different groups at 0, 4 and 8 weeks
I) Groups
(J) Groups
0 week
4 Weeks
8 Weeks
Mean
Difference
(I-J)
P value
Mean
Difference
(I-J)
P - value
Mean
Difference
(I-J)
P – value
"A" Normal diet
"B" High fat diet
0.500
1.000
-21.800(*)
0.005
-43.750(*)
<0.001
"C" High fat diet +
Crataegus
3.000
1.000
-43.050(*)
<0.001
3.500
1.000
"B" High fat diet
"C" High fat diet +
Crataegus
2.500
1.000
-21.250(*)
0.007
47.250(*)
<0.001
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
102 P J M H S VOL .6 NO.1 JAN – MAR 2012
DISCUSSION
The prevalence of obesity and over weight is
increasing world wide. Obesity and overweight have
many causes including genetic, metabolic, behavioral
and environmental. A comparison of data from 1960-
199416 with that from 1999-200017 shows that the
prevalence of overweight increased from 46% to
64.5% and the prevalence of obesity doubled to
30.5%. the rapid increase in prevalence suggests
that behavioral and environmental influences
predominate, rather than biological changes. Obesity
is directly associated with many metabolic and
cardiovascular diseases.18 Several weight lowering
measures are being used including the use of herbs.
Crataegus monogyna has acquired a prominent
status in herbal medicine. Extract of both flowers and
berries have been recommended to treat cardiac
failure, atherosclerosis, hyperlipidemia, hypertension,
angina and variety of geriatric conditions19. It is also
found to have weight lowering effect in the present
study. Previous studies have revealed that crataegus
is a rich source of flavonoids which confer anti
oxidant property to the plant. Antioxidants are
substances that scavenge free radicals damaging
compounds in the body that alter cell membranes,
tamper with DNA and even cause cell death. Free
radicals occur naturally in the body, but
environmental toxins (including ultraviolet light
radiation, cigarette smoking and air pollutants) can
also increase the number of these damaging
particles. While oxidation is part of a normal
biological reaction, over loading the cells with free
radicals could initiate the pathogenesis of many
diseases.20 Phenolic compounds of crataegus also
have antioxidant activity.21 Crataegus causes
significant decrease in blood levels of lipid.22 Part of
mechanism for antihyperlipidemic effects of hawthorn
fruit might involve the direct protection to LDL from
oxidation. In the present study obesity was induced in
albino rats by giving high fat diet. Then effect of
extract of crataegus berries was observed on the
weight of rats. It was found that crataegus has
significant weight lowering effect. This study is in
agreement with a previous study conducted in
Department of Pharmacy Tajen University,Taiwan; in
which overweight hamsters treated with crataegus
extract for a period of seven days were found to have
significant loss of total body weight. Size of white fat
cells were markedly reduced in treated hamsters,23 it
also lowered total cholesterol, triglycerides, low
density lipoprotein and elevated HDL levels. In a
related study crataegus was shown to exert
impressive metabolic and anti obesity benefits by
acting on a family of receptors called Peroxisome
Proliferators-Activated Receptors (PPARs). In that
study effects of crataegus were found to be inhibitory
for triglycerides and glucose absorption in vivo. In
vitro it suppressed the gene expressions of PPAR.24
CONLUSION
Obesity is linked with a large range of medical
complications. Weight reduction has beneficial effects
and an integral part of treating these morbidities. The
current study shows that crataegus is an effective
anti obesity agent, further work can unravel its
underlying biological mechanism and unique
properties that may prove useful to those seeking to
manage weight gain.
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