Metabolomics approach to investigate the ergogenic effect of Morinda citrifolia L. leaf extract on obese Sprague Dawley rats

Introduction: Natural products are obtaining much acceptance as ergogenic aid, not only among athletes but also among the general population including people with excess body fat. Under normal circumstances, an obese person will have the desire and ability to exercise reduced; mainly because they are easily fatigued. Thus, they need to boost their energy production so that they can be more active and healthier. Objective: In this present work, Morinda citrifolia L. leaf extract (MLE) which is believed to possess ergogenic property, was evaluated on its effect on an obese animal model using 1 H-NMR based metabolomics. Material and methods: Rats were fed with high fat diet (HFD) for 12 weeks for obese development. Once this was achieved, all the rats underwent endurance exercise (forced swimming test) every 2 weeks for 8 weeks together with treatment. The time to exhaustion was recorded for each rat. Three different dosages of MLE: 50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg of body weight were used together with two positive controls: 5 mg/kg caffeine and 100 mg/kg green tea. Blood was collected before and after treatments for metabolomics study. Results: Findings showed that feeding the rats at a dose of 200 mg/kg body weight MLE significantly prolonged the exhaustive swimming time of the rats, and altered the metabolites present in their serum. Discriminating metabolites involved were the product of various metabolic pathways, including carbohydrate, lipids metabolism and energy metabolism. Treatment with 200 mg/kg body weight MLE resulted in significant improvement in the metabolic perturbations where the proximity of the obese exercised treated group to that of normal exercised group in the partial least squares discriminant analysis score plot was observed. Conclusion: The present work demonstrated ergogenic property of MLE based on the improved metabolic perturbation in exercised obese rats

Ergogenic effect of mengkudu (Morinda citrifolia L.) leaf extract on obese sprague dawley rats using metabolomic approach

Natural products are getting much acceptance as ergogenic aids, in enhancing physical performance, not only among the athletes but also the general population. Obese person mostly has reduced desire and ability to exercise; resulting in difficulty to reduce weight and fat in the body. Thus, they need to boost their energy production so that they can be more active and healthier. In this study, Morinda citrifolia leaf extract (MLE) believed to possess ergogenic property was used to evaluate its effect on an obese animal model by using Forced Swimming Test (FST) as endurance exercise and the changes in metabolic profiles of exercise obese rats after treatment was also identified using 1H-NMR based metabolomics. The rats were fed with high fat diet (HFD) for 12 weeks for obese development. Once become obese, all the rats undergone endurance exercise every two weeks for 8 weeks together with treatment. Three different dosages of MLE used were 50 mg/kg, 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg of body weight (BW) together with two positive Control, 5 mg/kg caffeine and 100 mg/kg green tea. Blood and urine were collected for the metabolomic study. Animal study carried out showed that rats fed 200 mg/kg BW MLE demonstrated the longest endurance capacity of approximately three times as long as that of green tea and caffeine. The rats were also found to have lower lactate level, suggesting that energy metabolism was more effective in these rats. In addition, lactate dehydrogenase enzyme (LDH) activity, muscle injury indicator, was found to be lowest in rats fed the highest MLE level. Interestingly, the same effect was not seen in rats fed either caffeine or green tea, indicating that MLE treatment able to protect rat’s muscle. In metabolomic, multivariate analysis including unsupervised and supervised analysis were used to identify the potential biomarkers. The study showed that feeding the rats at a dose of 200 mg/kg BW MLE altered metabolites present in the serum of exercised obese rat. The PLS-DA score plots showed distinct separation between normal rats with that of green tea and caffeine treatments, and instead, were very similar to that of 200 mg/kg BW MLE suggesting that the 200 MLE feeding was more effective in improving endurance capacity in comparison to that of either synthetic or natural ergogenic substances. Metabolites such as glutamine, glycerol, glycine, acetoacetate, taurine, carnitine, succinate, pyruvate and 2-hydroxybutyrate were found to be higher after MLE treatment suggested that changes in metabolic pathways which included carbohydrate, lipid and energy metabolism. In conclusion, this study reports on the potential ergogenic property of high dose of MLE based on the enhancement swimming capacity, energy metabolism and metabolic perturbation in the exercised obese rats

NMR-based metabolomics profiling for radical scavenging and anti-aging properties of selected herbs

Herbs that are usually recognized as medicinal plants are well known for their therapeutic effects and are traditionally used to treat numerous diseases, including aging. This study aimed to evaluate the metabolite variations among six selected herbs namely Curcurma longa, Oenanthe javanica, Vitex negundo, Pluchea indica, Cosmos caudatus and Persicaria minus using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) coupled with multivariate data analysis (MVDA). The free radical scavenging activity of the extract was measured by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2-azinobis(3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay. The anti-aging property was characterized by anti-elastase and anti-collagenase inhibitory activities. The results revealed that P. minus showed the highest radical scavenging activities and anti-aging properties. The partial least squares (PLS) biplot indicated the presence of potent metabolites in P. minus such as quercetin, quercetin-3-O-rhamnoside (quercitrin), myricetin derivatives, catechin, isorhamnetin, astragalin and apigenin. It can be concluded that P. minus can be considered as a potential source for an anti-aging ingredient and also a good free radical eradicator. Therefore, P. minus could be used in future development in anti-aging researches and medicinal ingredient preparations