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Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "
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09.06.2011 |
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An extract made from the leaves of a palm found in the Mediterranean region lowers the blood sugar level and reduces weight. Moroccan researchers discovered this when they did tests on slim and fattened gerbils.
In Morocco the fan palm Chamaerops humilis grows along the coast. Local healers have used extracts from the palm for centuries as a remedy for diabetes-2, but also as an anti-inflammatory, anabolic, bactericide and diuretic. The researchers did animal experiments to try and find out whether the extracts do actually work. The reason for doing this was the search for a new way of treating obesity and overweight.
The researchers bought leaves and dried them. They ground the leaves to a fine powder, which they boiled in water. They filtered the water and freeze-dried the extract, which they then used for their experiments on Meriones shawi – rat-like rodents that are a kind of gerbil. Some of the gerbils were slim and others were overweight. The researchers had fattened the latter and prevented them from moving.
The gerbils were given 10 mg extract per kg bodyweight each day for 30 days. The extract was administered through a tube. One control group was given water; the other group was given taurine. The first table below shows the results for the fattened gerbils and the second for the slim animals.
The overweight gerbils lost 46 percent of their bodyweight when given the supplement; the slim gerbils only lost 7 percent.
The Moroccans did not examine the mechanism through which Chamaerops humilis works. They put forward the possibility, however, that phenols in the extracts imitate the effect of insulin, or that carbohydrate chains inhibit sugar uptake.
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