Antiobesity effect of Stellaria media against drug induced obesity in Swiss albino mice

The whole plant of Stellaria media (family: Caryophyllaceae) has been tested for its antiobesity activity by using progesterone-induced obesity model in female albino mice. The effect of S. media on food consumption pattern, change in body weight, thermogenesis, lipid metabolism, and histology of fat pad. were examined. Methanolic and alcoholic extracts of the S. media were used in the study. Methanolic extract of S. media (MESM) have prevented the increase in body weight, adipose tissue weight and size, and upturned obesity and associated complications. MESM has also shown promising effects compared with alcoholic extract of S. media may be because of its multiple mechanisms. These findings suggest that antiobesity activity produced by MESM is because of its anorexic property mediated by saponin and flavonoid and partly of by its β-sitosterol content. β-Sitosterol in the plant extract was confirmed by thin-layer chromatography study. β-sitosterol is plant sterol having structural similarity with dietary fat which do the physical competition in the gastrointestinal tract and reduces fat absorption. Before carrying in vivo activity detail pharmacognostic and phytochemical analysis of the extracts was carried out. The plant has shown the presence of saponin, flavonoids, steroids and triterpenoids, glycosides, and anthocynidine. By this study, it can be concluded that, MESM is beneficial in suppression of obesity induced by progesterone

Mesoporous TMOS-MTMS copolymer silica gels catalyzed by fluoride

Mesoporous HF-catalyzed tetramethoxysilane-methyltrimethoxysilane (TMOS-MTMS) copolymer silica gels with average pore diameter from 80 to 100 Å and narrow pore size distribution have been obtained. Mesoporous TMOS-MTMS copolymer gels with tetramethoxysilane ranging from 10% to 100% were also produced with tetrabutylammonium fluoride (TBAF) catalyst. The pore sizes of TBAF-catalyzed copolymer gels were controlled over a range from 25 to 194 Å. Their pore sizes increased with increasing fluoride content to R2=0.112 (R2, molarratio of F/Si) and then level off. The catalytic effect of fluoride on the sol-gel process was investigated. The results suggest that multi-fluorinated silicon species catalyze the silica polymerization. © 2001 Elvier Science B.V. All rights reserved