Dietary supplementation with purified mulberry (Morus australis Poir) anthocyanins suppresses body weight gain in high-fat diet fed C57BL/6 mice

We present our experiment about adding anthocyanins to the daily food of mice. Three kinds of anthocyanins (cyanidin-3-glucoside, cyanidin-3-rutinoside and pelargonidin-3-glucoside) purified from Chinese mulberry (Morus australis Poir) were evaluated for suppressing body weight gain of the male C57BL/6 mice fed with high-fat diet (HFD). The results from a 12-week experiment show that consumption of purified mulberry anthocyanins (MACN) of 40 or 200 mg/kg can significantly inhibit body weight gain, reduce the resistance to insulin, lower the size of adipocytes, attenuate lipid accumulation and decrease the leptin secretion. Thus, dietary supplementation with MACN can protect against body weight gain of the diet-induced obese mice.