In vivo and in vitro anti-obesity activities of dihydropyranocoumarins derivatives from Peucedanum japonicum Thunb

- We identified two varieties of Peucedanum japonicum Thunb (PJT).
- Dietary coumarin concentrates from two varieties of PJT inhibited obesity.
- Several coumarins from PJT exhibited distinct in vitro anti-obesity activities.

Several types of coumarins have been isolated from Peucedanum japonicum Thunb (PJT) and we previously reported the anti-obesity activity of pteryxin (PTX), as an active compound of PJT. However, during our research, we identified another variety of PJT, which does not contain any PTX. Here, we prepared concentrates from the two varieties of PJT and demonstrated that dietary PJT concentrates both with and without PTX significantly decreased the relative weights of white adipose tissue (WAT) and mRNA levels of lipogenic genes in epididymal WAT. Furthermore, we compared the inhibitory effects of dihydropyranocoumarins of PJT on lipid accumulation of differentiated 3T3-L1 adipocytes. All of the dihydropyranocoumarins used in this study significantly inhibited lipid accumulation and lipogenic-related gene expressions in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. However, the magnitudes of the effects were distinctly different. The present study demonstrated that several dihydropyranocoumarins in PJT possess anti-obesity activities, which mainly act by inhibiting lipogenesis in adipocytes.