Dihydroquercetin in Weight Control: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Preclinical Studies

Background: Obesity is a global epidemic and a complex chronic disease affecting more than one billion patients, leading to severe health issues like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. While lifestyle changes are the first-line treatment, they are often insufficient. Current medications may cause severe side effects, including muscle loss and vision problems. Objectives: This systematic review aims to generalize and evaluate data from preclinical studies on the effect of flavonoid dihydroquercetin (DHQ) on weight loss in experimental animals compared with placebo-treated animals. Methods: This systematic review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. The protocol was registered in the PROSPERO database in August 2025 (CRD420251129793). Risk of bias (RoB) was assessed by using SYRCLE's tool. Results: In total, eight studies included in the systematic review involved 175 animals (14 treatment groups and 9 control groups). Calculation of correlations between the reported effect on weight change and initial weight showed a strong association between these rates (R -0.9883). The intensity of DHQ effect depended on the condition: There were strong negative correlations between DHQ dose and the observed effect in diabetes mellitus (R -0.9056), hepatic lipid dysmetabolism (R -0.9339), and hepatic fibrosis (R -0.9025) in mice and rats' data together. Conclusions: Intake of DHQ in the course of one month and three months resulted in a decrease in animals' weight by 5.24% ± 1.95% and 18.29% ± 1.96% (p < 0.0001), respectively. Taken together, our results suggest the rationality for further research of DHQ as an anorexigenic agent, focusing on the stereochemistry of this flavonoid and its bioavailability optimization.