中國"雷公藤"植物治癒所有肥胖問題?
Thunder god vine, a traditional Chinese medicinal plant.
雷公藤，一種傳統的中藥植物。
Scientists have been scouring the world in recent decades for all manner of miracle plants that can help people slim down. As the market for weight-loss products and supplements has grown to a multi-billion-di liar industry, they've looked at dandelions, coffee and nuts, among other things. They've been cultivatin g an edible succulent called the caralluma fimbriata chewed by tribesmen in rural India to control their hunger during a day's hunt. And they have been trying to isolate and extract whatever it is in an African plant called hoodia, which looks like a spikey pickle, that tricks you into feeling full even if you hav en.t eaten a bite.
近幾十年來科學家們一直在世界各地尋找各種各樣的可以幫助人們減肥的神奇植物。隨着減肥產品和補充劑的市場已經發展成爲一個數十億美元的產業，他們一路査看了蒲公英，咖啡，堅果等等。他們一直在培養可食用的多汁植物稱爲“印度仙人掌”，是印度農村部落在結束了一天的捕獵之後用來咀嚼控制飢餓的，他們一直在試圖分離和提取一個被稱之爲“蝴蝶亞”的與非洲植物，想査明裏面究竟有些什麼，這個與非洲之物看起來像一個泡菜的圖片，能欺騙你，讓你有飽腹感，即使你根本連一口都沒有吃過。But none of these has been more promising in early studies than a traditional Chinese medicine known as thunder god vine.
但是在這些植物上的早期研究都沒有傳統的中藥植物雷公藤更有前途。
In a paper published in the journal Cell on Thursday, scientists said an extract made from the plant reduces food intake and has led to a dramatic 45 percent decrease in body weight in obese mice.
於週四在《細胞》雜誌上發表的一篇論文中，科學家說從該植物中提取的一小部分，使得肥胖老鼠減少了食物的攝取量，還導致其體重急劇下降了45%。study author Omut Ozcan, an endocrinologist at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said the substance appears to work by enhancing a fat-derived hormone called leptin that signals to the body when it has enough fuel and energy. Humans who lack leptin, can eat voraciously and can become morbidly obese.
該項研究的作者，波士頓兒童醫院和哈佛醫學院的內分泌學家Omut Ozcan說，該種物質能夠有效提高脂肪源性激素，也稱之爲瘦素，當身體有了足夠的燃料和能量之後，是瘦素向身體發出信號的。缺乏瘦素的人，會狼吞虎嚥地吃東西，然後變成病態肥胖。"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. The message from this study is that there is still hope for making leptin work," Ozcan said in a statement.
"在過去二十年裏,在打碎瘦素的抵抗從而治療肥胖上作出了大量的努力,但這些努力都失敗了。這項研究給出的信息就是,使瘦素起效果仍然是有希望的,"Ozcan在一份聲明中說。In the study, Ozcan found that with only one week of treatment with an extract made from thunder god v; e — which they called Celastrol — the mice reduced their food intake by 80 percent as compared with tho se who did not get the extract. Three weeks later, those mice had lost nearly half of their initial body weight.
Ozcan在這項研究中發現只用雷公藤的提取物(他們將其稱之爲雷公藤紅素)進行了一個星期的治療,老鼠的食物攝入量 ,就比那些沒有使用提取物的老鼠的攝入量少了80%。三週後,這些使用了提取物的老鼠甩掉了將近它們原本體重的一半。The results were even more effective than a drastic measure used to reduce weight: bariatric surgery. In addition, scientists reported that they saw other positive health effects from decreased cholesterol lev els to improved liver functions.
這一結果甚至比過去所使用的釜底抽薪的減肥方式，減肥手術更有效。此外，科學家還報道說從中他們還看到了對健康方面的其他的積極的影響，可以降低膽固醇水平和改善肝臟功能。While the team did not find any toxic effects of the extract in mice, the researchers strongly cautioned that more studies needed to be done to demonstrate the compound's safety in humans.
因爲該團隊還未發現該提取物對小老鼠有任何毒性作用，但研究人員強烈警告說，還需要做更多的研究來證明這種混合物對人體而言是安全的。"Celastrol is found in the roots of the thunder god vine in small amounts, but the plant's roots and flowers have many other compounds," Ozcan said. "As a result, it could be dangerous for humans."
"雷公藤紅素只存在於雷公藤的根中，而且量很少,但該植物的根和花還含有很多其他化合物,"Ozcan說。"因此,這對人類而言可能是有危險的。"
