Abstract

Obesity is a universal disease, which leads to negative effects in society and at the individual human’s health. Ιt is caused by several factors and the synergy of many different mechanisms of action. There are some therapeutic approaches, which scientists have promoted for obesity. One of these approaches is the use of natural herbal products against obesity. In the present literature study, a meta-analysis was conducted of the results of numerous original studies, which examine natural herbal products against obesity. The outcomes of this met-analysis present the most popular families of herbs and their including species which are used for the reduction of the obesity. Moreover, the present study refers the main mechanisms of action of these plant products. Finally, the most common parts of plants, which were used for their anti-obesity actions, are present. The results show that Lamiaceae and Rosaceae were the most examined families against obesity, which contained metabolites such as phenolic acids and polyphenols. Finally, the literature review shows that most of the times researchers had tested the combination of different mechanism of actions; which the most popular mechanisms refer were the inhibition of pancreatic lipase and ketohexinase-C.

Key words: anti-obesity, Lamiaceae, natural products, herbal parts, pancreatic lipase