Scientists from Ehime, Japan, have investigated the effects of (–)-secoisolariciresinol on obese rats. (–)-Secoisolariciresinol [(–)-SECO] is a pure stereoisomer of a lignan primarily found in flaxseed. It has previously been found to suppress triglyceride accumulation and therefore could be useful to decrease obesity by reducing fat accumulation.
In this study, male mice were fed a high fat diet for 28 days and different groups were administered with (–)-SECO at different concentrations. It was shown that oral administration of (–)-SECO stimulates adiponectin production in the mice and significantly suppressed weight gain in a dose dependant manner. When (–)-SECO is metabolised, it is converted into other compounds which were also tested by subcutaneous injections, however (–)-SECO still showed the highest activity amongst them.
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(–)-Secoisolariciresinol attenuates high-fat diet-induced obesity in C57BL/6 mice, Shiori Tominaga, Kosuke Nishi, Sogo Nishimoto, Koichi Akiyama, Satoshi Yamauchiad and Takuya Sugahara, Food Funct., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/c1fo10166h
