The Possible Protective Effects of Chamomile Extract and/or Green Tea Extract on Obese Male Albino Rats

Background: Obesity and metabolic syndrome can lead to serious medical problems. Both chamomile and green tea are herbal medicines that can provide alternative option for the obesity treatment and its related complications. Aim of the study: This study aimed to investigate the effects of chamomile extract alone or green tea extract alone or in combination on obese male albino rats. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out on 50 rats, 10 rats were allocated as normal control group. A total of 40 rats developed obesity by feeding rats high fat diet (HFD) for 10 weeks. Then the obese rats were categorized into 4 groups of equal numbers assigned as obese control group, chamomile treated, green tea treated and combined chamomile and green tea treated groups. Effects of monotherapy and combined therapy of chamomile and green tea on anthropometric measurements, glycemic state, lipid profile, oxidative stress markers and blood pressure were recorded. Results: HFD led to significant increase in body weight, BMI, fasting glucose and insulin, lipid profile, blood pressure and malondialdehyde associated with significant reduction of HDL-C and catalase. Treatment with Chamomile and green tea led to marked decrease of body weight, BMI, fasting glucose and insulin, lipid profile, blood pressure and malondialdehyde associated with significant increase in HDL-C and catalase. Green tea was superior in body weight management, lipid profile improvement and its antioxidant power while chamomile was more dominant in improvement of glycemic markers and blood pressure. Conclusion: chamomile and green tea extracts are of the most useful traditional medicines that showed promising results that aid in treatment of the problems associated with obesity and metabolic disturbances (e.g., insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, hypertension and oxidative stress).