Multi-Target Anti-Obesity Potential of Coula edulis Nut Extract in High-Fat Diet-Induced Obesity in Rats

Obesity is known to be associated with dyslipidaemia, cardiovascular disorders, oxidative stress, adipogenic and adipokine responses. The anti-obesity effect of Coula edulis nut extract (CEE) was investigated in high-fat-diet (HFD) fed obese Wistar rats. After a four-week HFD feeding, the rats received the nut extract p.o. for 5 weeks in a two-batch design. Batch I: Normal Control (ND only) Obese Control (HFD only), Standard Control (HFD + 0.03 g/kg b.w. Orlistat) and extract-treated groups 1 and 2 (HFD + CEE1g/kg b.w. and HFD + CEE2g/kg b.w., respectively). Batch II: Normal Control (ND only), Obese Control (ND only), Standard Control (ND + 0.03 g/kg b.w. Orlistat) and extract-treated groups 1 & 2 (ND + CEE1g/kg b.w. and ND + CEE2g/kg b.w., respectively). During the 5-week extract treatment, Batch I rats were fed HFD alongside, whereas the Batch II rats were fed normal diet (ND) instead. Weight gain, feed intake, anthropometric indicators, blood lipids, cardiovascular risk indices, pancreatic lipase activity, tissue lipid content, hepatic cholesterol biosynthesis, oxidative stress indices, expression of adipogenic/lipogenic genes and adipose histology were determined. Coula edulis extract was found to decrease weight gain, obesity indicators, lipogenesis, pancreatic lipase activity, cardiovascular risk factors, oxidative stress, and PPAR-γ, C/EBP-α and SREBP-1c mRNA levels (p < 0). Together, the results indicate that Coula edulis nut extract could attenuate obesity by modulating lipid digestion, cholesterol synthesis, oxidative stress and adipogenic/lipogenic transcription factors.