Dietary Effect of Puer Tea Extract on the Body Weight in Rats

Puer tea is a traditional beverage originating from Yunnam area of China. It supplies basic nutrients such as vitamin C. It has been well reported that daily drinking of Puer tea can help the digestion and ease the stomachache after food intake. Puer tea also contains various polyphenols which may exert antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes. Because of these functional effects on digestive system we suspected if Puer tea can display any dietary effect or decrease the obesity after long-term drinking. We employed 6-week old SD rats as experimental animal and treated them with extract of Puer tea in relation to the body weights. Rats were divided into 5 groups (NC, PC, E, E+P, E+P5). NC group was experimental control and rest of them are as follows: water only (PC), water with exercise (E), water with exercise and Puer tea extract (E+P), water with exercise and 5X extract of Puer tea (E+P5). Feeding was carried out every day for 5 weeks by oral administration. Reduction rate of body weights was highest in E group. Relative ratio of losing weight was as follows: PC group (100.78%), E group (95.57%), E+P group (94.53%) and E+P5 group (74.22%), respectively. Exercise was more helpful to control the body weight. The result strongly suggests that Puer tea is highly effective to control the body weight and could be used for pharmaceutical purpose to treat obesity without side effects.