L-carnitine, green tea extract, and lotus leaf extract’s effects on body fat percentage in rats given a high-energy diet that causes obesity

BackgroundObesity has become a public health issue of global concern. Obesity is often associated with the occurrence of many diseases, andwill also increase mortality; it not only affects personal health, but also increases healthcare costs, thus reducing social productivityand causing negative social and economic impacts. Therefore, ameliorating obesity is an issue worth attention and effort. The development of a natural and safe anti-obesity combination is worthy of further research. It is known that L-carnitine, green tea and lotusleaves have anti-obesity potential, but there is no research and discussion on this novel combination to improve body fat.ObjectiveThis study explored how the dietary supplement formula containing L-carnitine, green tea extract and lotus leaf extract (CGL) lowered the body fat accumulation in rats induced by high-energy diet.DesignThe test used 60 male Sprague Dawley® white rats aged 6 weeks, which were first divided into the control group (12 rats were givennormal feed) and the experimental group (48 rats were given high energy diet; HE). The HE group was further divided into H2Oand CGL groups (296, 593 and 1186 mg/kg, to be designated as CGL-L, CGL-M, CGL-H respectively). The rats were first fed withfeed for five-weeks, and then fed with different doses of CGL by gavage starting from the sixth-week. After nine-weeks of feeding,the rats were sacrificed to obtain their body weight, feed intake, body fat, serum biochemical indices and liver lipid measurements.ResultsThe results show that the final body weight of HE+CGL-L (578.8±41.6 g) was significantly lower than that of HE+H2O (634.9±42.2g), and the body fat amount of HE+CGL-L (36.6±9.8 g) was significantly lower than that of HE+H2O (49.4±13.8 g). Feed efficiencyand calorie efficiency of HE+CGL-L were also significantly lower than that of HE+H2O (p<0.001). HE+CGL-M and HE+CGL-Hwere also able to significantly reduce the final body weight, body fat amount and serum-free fatty acid concentration (p<0.05).ConclusionCGL can significantly reduce the final body weight, body fat amount, body fat ratio, feed efficiency and calorie efficiency. CGL hasthe potential as a new dietary supplement for weight loss. However, the significance of these results on humans taking the supplement for prolonged periods of time is unknown and should be a focus for future investigations.