Abstract: Obesity has become a major public global health concern. Pancreatic lipase plays important roles in the digestion, transport and processing of dietary lipids in humans. Inhibition of pancreatic lipase leading to the decrease of lipid absorption may be used for treating obesity. The α-amylase inhibitors can prevent carbohydrate digestion or absorption can decrease calorie intake to promote weight loss and combat obesity. In order to find new pancreatic lipase and α-amylase inhibitors from mushrooms for the treatment of obesity, 18 different edible mushrooms families were investigated. Methanolic and water extracts of the plants were detected by using two in vitro testing systems. All the varieties of edible mushrooms reported to have inhibitory pancreatic lipase and α-amylase activities. Methanolic extract (95%) of Yellow silk mushroom showed strong anti-lipase activity (IC50: 43 ± 1.3 μg/mL), the aqueous extract of Cordyceps mushroom shows high anti-amylase (IC50: 7.42 ± 1.03 mg/mL) activity. The results obtained indicated that the extracts of Yellow silk mushroom and Cordyceps mushroom could be good candidates for further studies.
Key words: anti-obesity; anti-diabetes; pancreatic lipase inhibition; α-amylase inhibition; edible mushrooms