Weight Loss and drium stick leaves ext

Ref

 Food Science & Nutrition logo

Food Sci Nutr. 2026 Aug 28;14(9):e72292. doi: 10.1002/fsn3.72292

Impacts of M. oleifera Leaf Extract on Weight Loss, the Metabolomic Profile, and the Intestinal Microbiota in Individuals With Simple Obesity

Xiaoxian Zhou 1,2, Daoqiang He 3, Jia Xiong 1, Xinle Zhang 1, Yongfang Zhou 4, Jia Luo 1, Lan Zhou 3, Huilin Chen 3, Jingwen Dao 3, Fei Mi 1, Yanjiao Wang 1, Shaoxiong Wu 1,✉, Hongmei Pan 1,✉

Morlringa oleifera leaf extract is simply Drum stick leaves. Leaf extract reduces body weight.

Introduction

Obesity/overweight, characterized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the abnormal accumulation of fat in the body, poses a significant threat to human health. 

Since 1980, the global prevalence of obesity/overweight has nearly doubled, and one out of every three people is now considered overweight. This trend is increasingly affecting younger people, making obesity a major public health concern and a life‐threatening condition (Zhu et al. 2022

; Lin and Li 2021; Jebeile et al. 2022).

 Obesity can increase the risk of numerous noncommunicable diseases in humans, such as hypertension, dyslipidaemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM),

 cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, asthma, and various malignancies, and can impact nearly all organs and systems (Safaei et al. 2021; De Lorenzo et al. 2019).

 Several factors contribute to the development of obesity, including genetics, lifestyle habits, dietary habits, feeding practices, and the gut microbiota (Endalifer and Diress 2020

).

 At present, measures for preventing and controlling obesity include dietary interventions, pharmaceutical interventions, lifestyle changes, and surgical approaches. 

Conventional weight loss drugs include liraglutide, somatostatin, and orlistat, among others (Chao et al. 2021; Aaseth et al. 2021) 

However, pharmaceutical interventions and surgery may have adverse effects; for example, orlistat can cause diarrhea.

 Lm Therefore, there has been increasing interest in the use of natural, active food components in weight loss research.

Gut microbiota are closely associated with the development of several diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases, schizophrenia, and obesity (Cryan et al. 2019). The ratio of the abundance of thick‐walled bacteria to that of Bacteroidetes has been used as a marker of susceptibility to obesity: the higher this ratio is, the greater the risk of fat accumulation. Compared with nonobese individuals, individuals with obesity exhibit higher relative abundances of Prevotellaceae and Enterobacteriaceae; lower relative abundances of Christensenellaceae, Methanobacteriales, Lactobacillus, Bifidobacteria, Akkermansia, and other beneficial flora; and reduced diversity in their 

gut microbiota (Tseng and Wu 2019). Gut microbiota regulate the absorption of energy and the storage of fat (Abenavoli et al. 2019) and affect the secretion of appetite‐related hormones such as GLP‐1, ghrelin, PYY, and LEP (Asadi et al. 2022; Liu et al. 2021). Given these links between the gut microbiota and obesity, the use of probiotics has become a hot topic in the control of obesity.

Moringa oleifera leaf extracts are widely used in various products, such as foods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and livestock feed, and exhibit anti‐inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, hypotensive, hepatoprotective, antiulcer, diuretic, antidiabetic, and anticancer effects (Rode et al. 2022; Hodas et al. 2021). 

Studies have shown that M. oleifera leaf extracts can significantly alleviate metabolic disorders in obese rodents fed a high‐fat diet by lowering resistin levels, increasing lipocalin levels and mitigating increases in body weight and visceral fat accumulation through the regulation of lipid metabolism, leptin, and obesity‐related genes (Wu et al. 2021; Alkhudhayri et al. 2021; Kilany et al. 2020; Kundimi et al. 2020). In addition, M. oleifera leaf extract can increase the content of beneficial bacteria while decreasing the abundances of harmful bacteria in the feces of obese animal models and improve body weight, lipid levels, and insulin resistance. These findings suggest that M. oleifera leaf extract may improve lipid metabolism by regulating the gut microbiota (Li et al. 2022).

Although M. oleifera leaf extracts have been shown to induce weight loss, alleviate metabolic disorders, and increase the abundance of beneficial gut microbiota in in vitro and in vivo experiments, there is insufficient evidence for these roles in humans. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to investigate the effects of M. oleifera leaf extract on weight loss, metabolism, and the gut microbiota in a sample of individuals with simple obesity.