The molecule nobiletin in oranges could reverse obesity as the equivalent of just two and a half glasses of orange juice per day. As a result, this could increase the risk of heart disease and as an additive in medicationsreduce diabetes. This is a benefit that Western researchers attribute to the flavonoid. This extract is mainly found as an active ingredient in sweet oranges and mandarins.
Nobiletin effective in oranges
The study conducted showed that mice that researchers fed a high-fat diet but also administered nobiletin were noticeably leaner compared to other laboratory mice. The scientists fed the mice high amounts of cholesterol, but they had reduced insulin resistance and blood lipids.
“We further showed that we can also intervene with nobiletin in oranges,” said Schulich Professor Murray Huff, who has been studying the effects of nobiletin for more than a decade. “We showed that in mice that already have all the negative symptoms of obesity, we can use nobiletin to reverse those symptoms and even reverse the plaque buildup in the arteries, known as atherosclerosis.”
However, Huff also says that he and his team still don't know exactly how Nobiletin works. The researchers hypothesized that the molecule likely acts in a way that regulates how the body handles fat. This regulator, called AMP kinase, turns on the machinery in the body that burns fats to produce energy. Thus, this process blocks the production of fats. However, when researchers examined the effects of nobiletin on mice that had been genetically modified, they did not observe the same effect.
Study results
“This result showed us that nobiletin does not act on AMP kinase and bypasses this master regulator of fat utilization in the body. What we’re left with is the question, how does Nobiletin do it?”
He also says that while the mystery remains, this latest finding is still clinically important. It shows that Nobiletin does not interfere with other drugs that work on fat burning. In his opinionCurrent therapeutics work against diabeteslike metformin also in this way. The next step is primarily to transfer these studies to humans. This allows us to determine whether nobiletin in oranges has the same positive effects on metabolism.
“Obesity and the resulting metabolic syndromes place a tremendous burden on our health care system. We have very few interventions that have been shown to work effectively,” Huff said. “We have to take this focus out of theStudycontinue to focus on the discovery of new therapeutics.”
