We know the that, black pepper has many medicinal benefits, like curing illness such as constipation, diarrhea, earache, gangrene, heart disease, hernia, hoarseness, indigestion, insect bites, insomnia, joint pain, liver problems, lung disease, oral abscesses, sunburn, tooth decay, and toothaches. Now Korean researchers report that piperine (see structure below), a pungent compound found in black pepper (Piper nigrum), helps block the formation of new fat cells, a process known as adipogenesis.
"Adipogenesis is a well-organized process regulated by adipogenic
transcription factors, such as peroxisome proliferator-activated
receptor-gamma (PPAR-gamma), sterol regulatory element binding protein
(SREBP) family, and CCAAT-enhancer binding protein (C/EBP) family," the
authors write in their introduction. "Of these factors, PPAR-gamma has
been focused on its role in adipocyte differentiation. In addition to
being induced during adipogenesis, it is both necessary and sufficient
for the process."
In
addition to other benefits such as enhancing nutrient absorption in the
digestive tract, black pepper has been found to reduce blood glucose
and lipids. In the current study, Soo-Jong Um, Ji-Cheon Jeong and
colleagues tested the effects of black pepper extract and piperine on
cultured preadipocytes and found that both inhibited the cells
differentiation into mature fat cells. Expression of the genes for
PPAR-gamma, SREBP-1c and C/EBP-beta were all found to be decreased, as
was the binding of PPAR-gamma to a coactivator known as CREB-binding
protein following the administration of either treatment. Piperine was
also shown to repress LXR-alpha, another transcriptional factor that is
involved in the induction of adipogenesis as well as the synthesis of
cholesterol and fatty acids.
"Taken together, our findings suggest that piperine, a major component
of black pepper, inhibits fat cell differentiation by down-regulating
the transcriptional activity of PPAR-gamma (and LXR-alpha) and
suppressing the expression of PPAR-gamma (and LXR-alpha), thus leading
to its potential use in the treatment of obesity-related diseases," the
authors conclude.
Ref : http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jf204514a?prevSearch=%255BContrib%253A%2BSoo-Jong%2BUm%255D&searchHistoryKey=
