Herbal Bilberry, the Anti-Obesity Functional Food in Animal and Human Study

By Kyle J. Norton

On seeking natural therapy with no side effects, scientists may have a herbal remedy that visceral fat accumulation in obesity, according to studies.

Visceral fat is a layer of fat that surrounds the organs. Overexpression of visceral fat has been found to promote insulin resistance, diabetes, heart disease, and inflammation.

Visceral fat obesity is associated with 90% of patients with ischemic heart disease. In obese, accumulation of visceral fat is predominant in the intra-abdominal cavity.

However, in non-obese subjects, visceral fat accumulation is correlated with glucose intolerance, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension.

Obesity is a medical condition caused by excess body fat accumulated to an extent that impact personal health. The hallmark of obesity is attenuated metabolism and structural cell changes in the obese fat observed by reducing metabolic activity.

According to the statistics provided by the National Center for Health Statistics (2015-2016), in the US, approximately 39.8% of adults aged 20 and over were obese accompanied by another 31.8% overweight.

Obesity rates have increased for all population groups in the US over the last several decades, coincidently with the periods in the promotion of the Western diet.

Dr. Maximilian Tremmel, the lead scientist in the investigation of economic burden in obesity wrote, "The rising prevalence of obesity represents an important public health issue. An assessment of its costs may be useful in providing recommendations for policy and decision makers" and "there was great variety in the included obesity-related diseases and complications among the studies".

And, "There is an urgent need for public health measures to prevent obesity in order to save societal resources. Moreover, international consensus is required on standardized methods to calculate the cost of obesity to improve homogeneity and comparability".

The findings strongly suggested the widespread obesity has caused a significant pressure in the public health care system and impact in the financial and economic burden.

Bilberry is a species of low-growing shrubs in the genus Vaccinium, belonging to the family Ericaceae, native to Northern Europe.


The plant has been used as herbs in traditional medicine for the treatment of acute and chronic diarrhea, gastritis, gastric ulcer, and duodenal ulcer, enterocolitis, ulcerative colitis, anemia, cystitis, kidney disease, and psoriasis, diabetes, etc.

In the urgency to find a natural remedy for the treatment of obesity, researchers examined the effects of anthocyanin-rich phytochemicals found in aronia fruits (aronia phytochemicals) and bilberry in high-fat-diet-induced dietary obese rats.

During the study, bilberry phytochemicals-supplemented rats showed a significant reduction of total visceral fat mass but in a lesser extent compared to aronia phytochemicals.

Similarly, perirenal and epididymal adipose tissue mass in rats fed aronia phytochemicals was by far greater than the bilberry phytochemicals group.

Bilberry lowered the mesenteric adipose tissue mass.

Bilberry also exerted the equivalently inhibited the increases in plasma triglyceride levels, compared to that of aronia phytochemicals with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) of 1.50 mg/mL.

The results suggest that anthocyanin-rich phytochemicals in aronia fruits and bilberry may have a potency for the treatment of obesity through suppressing the visceral fat accumulation and hyperglycemia.

In order to reveal more information about bilberry anti-obesity property, researchers evaluated a flavonoid-rich supplement (329 mg/d) on total urine phenolics and shifts in plasma metabolites in overweight/obese female adults.

Participants (N = 103, 18-65 y, BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2) included in the study were randomized to flavonoid (F) or placebo (P) groups for 12 weeks with blood and 24 h urine samples collected prestudy and after 4 and 12 weeks in a parallel design.

The supplement included vitamin C, wild bilberry fruit extract, green tea leaf extract, quercetin, caffeine, and omega 3 fatty acids.

According to the urinary assay, the 4 weeks, urine total phenolics increased 24% in F versus P with similar changes at 12 weeks.

In of F demonstrated the shifts in 63 biochemicals compared to P with 70% from the lipid and xenobiotics super-pathways, according to the examination of metabolomics assay.

Where metabolite profile is reflective of metabolic processes, including pathophysiological changes characteristic of obesity-related complications.

The findings suggested that flavonoid-rich supplement may have a strong effect on the change of metabolome which is the sum of all the small-molecule chemicals found in a biological sample, often the blood plasma and considered a measurement of obesity and health beyond BMI.

Taken altogether, bilberry used alone or combined with other agents may be considered functional remedies for the prevention and treatment of obesity, pending to the confirmation of large sample size and multicenter human study.

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 Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

References
(1) Anthocyanin-rich Phytochemicals from Aronia Fruits Inhibit Visceral Fat Accumulation and Hyperglycemia in High-fat Diet-induced Dietary Obese Rats by Takahashi A1, Shimizu H, Okazaki Y, Sakaguchi H, Taira T, Suzuki T, Chiji H. (PubMed)
(2) Influence of Ingesting a Flavonoid-Rich Supplement on the Metabolome and Concentration of Urine Phenolics in Overweight/Obese Women by Nieman DC1, Ramamoorthy S2, Kay CD3, Goodman CL1, Capps CR1, Shue ZL1, Heyl N1, Grace MH3, Lila MA. (PubMed)
(3) Economic Burden of Obesity: A Systematic Literature Review by Maximilian Tremmel,1,* Ulf-G. Gerdtham,2,3,4 Peter M. Nilsson,5 and Sanjib Saha. (PMC)