Obesity is a global epidemic and a causal factor for many serious ailments and is increasing at alarming rates. Obesity is responsible for about 5% deaths with global economic impact of $2 trillion annually. Flaxseed has great ethnopharmacological relevance. Because of the lipid lowering profile of its constituents it can be used for treatment of Obesity. Flaxseed, a nutraceutical rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, lignans and dietary fibres. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) has come to attention recently as a genetically tractable vertebrate model system for human diseases. Organs and tissues of zebrafish and humans are structurally and functionally quite similar. Flaxseed may have potential antiobesity activity which can be best evaluated by using zebrafish model of diet induced obesity. Flaxseeds were collected, cleaned, ground to powder and extracted with petroleum ether to collect oil. The defatted powder remaining behind was dried and re-extracted with ethanol:water (7:3 v/v) to collect lignan i.e. secoisolariciresinol diglucoside. The different constituents of flaxseed such as oil, lignan, oil/lignan emulsion and powder were administered to zebrafish and further they were evaluated and compared for their antiobesity potential with orlistat as a standard. The study showed that there was significant restoration of obesogenic parameters in groups receiving flaxseed constituents. Restoration of obesogenic parameters was shown higher with flaxseed powder as compared to other constituents. The results thus obtained were suggestive of the flaxseed powder having better antiobesity potential than individual constituents probably due to synergism of all the constituents.
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