Metabolomic Assay, Computational Screening, and Pharmacological Evaluation of Caulerpa racemosa as an Anti-obesity With Anti-aging by Altering Lipid Profile and Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor-γ Coactivator 1-α Levels

Abstract

Obesity is associated with an accelerated aging process, which prevents healthy aging. Both obesity and aging were manifested in the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator α (PGC-1α) level. These studies fulfill the scientific gap in assembled pharmacological activity assay of <i>Caulerpa racemosa</i> done in a previous preclinical trial. Six major compounds from sea grape (<i>C. racemosa</i>) extract were evaluated using an <i>in silico</i> approach against human pancreatic <i>lipase</i>, <i>a-glucosidase</i>, and <i>a-amylase</i> to predict prospective anti-obesity candidates. The <i>lipase</i> inhibitory activity of the extract reached 90.30 ± 0.40%, 1.75% lower than orlistat. The <i>a-amylase</i> inhibitory assay of the extract was 84.07 ± 5.28%, while the inhibitory activity against <i>a-glucosidase</i> was 81.67 ± 1.54%; both were lower than acarbose. We observe the effect of <i>C. racemosa</i> extract as anti-obesity with anti-aging by evaluating the obesity parameters in the human body for a 4-week period. There was a significant decrease in blood glucose, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), triglycerides (TG), waist circumference, waist-hip ratio, and body weight (<i>p</i> < 0.05); PGC-1α and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) increased significantly (<i>p</i> = 0.000), in Group B when compared with Group A. Our study revealed that sea grape extract is a potent anti-obesity with an anti-aging reagent that does not produce any significant adverse effects.