'Saba' banana peel contains significant amounts of pectin but with very limited commercial use. To increase its value, the present study investigated the effect of 'saba' peel pectin (SPP) on biomarkers of obesity and associated blood lipid disorders in vivo and identified its potential mechanism via in vitro lipid lowering assays. ICR male mice were induced with obesity and hypercholesterolemia using 45% high fat diet (HFD) for three weeks. The mice were then randomly allocated to four groups fed various diets ad libitum for nine weeks as follows: (1) normal diet (ND), (2) high-fat diet (HFD), (3) HFD with 10% w/w commercial citrus pectin (HFD-CCP), and (4) HFD with 10% w/w SPP (HFD-SPP). For the in vitro study, lipid lowering assays were carried out using published protocols with some modifications. Results showed that the mean endline body weight of HFD-CCP and HFD-SPP were significantly lower than HFD group despite having comparable feed intake. The pectin-supplemented groups also had lower blood total cholesterol than HFD group. Necropsy results showed no significant treatment-related difference in the relative organ weights, except for the liver of HFD group being pale, enlarged, and heavier than the other mice groups. This is consistent with the microscopic observations of liver sections from HFD-CCP and HFD-SPP which had occasional fat deposits only whereas HFD group showed mild necrosis and fat infiltration. In terms of body fat, the adiposity index was significantly lower among HFD-SPP and HFD-CCP than the HFD group, with both pectin-supplemented groups showing lesser extent of increase in adipocyte diameter. Meanwhile, HFD-CCP and HFD-SPP groups were significantly comparable in terms of body weight, blood lipids, organ and adipose tissue weights, adiposity index, and liver morphology. In vitro assays revealed that SPP had significantly higher cholesterol and bile acid binding capacities at 60 μg/mL and 20 μg/mL, respectively than CCP and bile acid-binding drug, cholestyramine. These showed that SPP supplementation improves biomarkers of obesity and associated blood lipid disorders at par with commercially-available citrus pectin possibly via cholesterol and bile acid binding pathways, suggesting that SPP may be a potential functional ingredient with anti-obesity and anti-hypercholesterolemic properties.

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