In a study conducted on obese mice, an extract from the "Thunder God" plant drastically reduced food intake by over 80 percent and thus decreased the body weight by 45 percent.
The author of the study is Omut Ozcan, an endocrinologist at the Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital. He revealed that the extract enhances a hormone called leptin. This fat-derived hormone leptin releases signals to the body that there is no need to eat more food as there is enough food material for body fuel.
When the presence of leptin is enhanced in the body then the body does not feel the urge to eat more and thus the overall food intake gets reduced, according to Washington Post.
During the study, scientists found that it was reduced by up to 80 percent. This in turn affected the body weight, which reduced drastically, according to Yahoo.
"During the last two decades, there has been an enormous amount of effort to treat obesity by breaking down leptin resistance, but these efforts have failed," Ozcan said. "The message from this study is that there is still hope for making leptin work."
During a period of three weeks, the study was carried over two groups of mice. One group was given the "Thunder God" extract whereas the other group was not given the extract. After a period of three weeks, scientists found that the "Thunder God" extract group had managed to reduce their body weight by almost 50 percent, compared to the other group.