Possible new weapon against obesity: Chinese thunder god vine, used in traditional medicine
In a new study, an extract from the plant's root, widely used in TCM as an anti-rheumatic drug, reduced food intake and caused up to a 45 per cent decrease in body weight in obese mice
A plant extract widely used in traditional Chinese medicine as an anti-rheumatic drug has shown in a new study to reduce food intake, leading obese mice to lose up to 45 per cent of their body weight.
Celastrol, the extract from the roots of the thunder god vine – also known as lei gong teng or by its scientific name Tripterygium wilfordii – produces its potent effects by enhancing the action of an appetite-suppressing hormone called leptin.
“During the last two decades, there has been an enormous amount of effort to treat obesity by breaking down leptin resistance, but these efforts have failed,” says senior study author and endocrinologist Umut Ozcan.
“The message from this study is that there is still hope for making leptin work, and there is still hope for treating obesity. If Celastrol works in humans as it does in mice, it could be a powerful way to treat obesity and improve the health of many patients suffering from obesity and associated complications, such as heart disease, fatty liver, and type 2 diabetes.”
Thunder god vine, which grows in southern China and is also native to Japan and Korea, has been used for centuries in China to combat rheumatoid arthritis. It’s also used as a folk remedy for excessive menstrual periods and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and lupus.
The extract has also been shown to wipe out pancreatic tumours in mice, according to a study published in 2012 in the journal Science Translational Medicine by researchers from University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Centre.