The Effect of Caffeine and Ephedrine Combination on Weight Loss and Lipid Profile of Newzealand Rabbits

Dr. Amna Bashir Medani Ahmed Eiman Adam Mohamed BSc Pharmacy University of Medical Science and Technology   Supervisor: Dr. Amna Bashir Medani Ahmed Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology

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Outlines: General notes. Catechol Amines and energy metabolism. Experimental part. Experiment out comes. Conclusions Recommendations.

A. Do you know that: Worldwide obesity dramatically increased to more than double since 1980. In 2014 nearly 39% of adults aged 18 years and above were either overweight or obese. 42 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in 2013. In the African region obesity rates are rapidly increasing particularly in urban settings, which are considered as a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks and a variety of cancers. As Obesity is preventable and reversible, finding a cheaper and easily attainable from native sources alternative anti-obesity drugs will encourage obese people to reduce their weight and thereby prevent other complications.

B. The regulation of energy metabolism by catechol amines. The + and – signs indicate the main enzymatic steps that are affected by β-adrenoreceptor (+for stimulation and – for inhibition), the final effect is metabolism of glycogen and fat stores to meet energy demands.

C. Experimental Animals Under Experimental Conditions.

The combination was prepared by mixing 200 mg of caffeine with 20mg ephedrine hydrochloride and dissolving the resultant mix in sufficient amount of water. Both ephedrine hydrochloride only and caffeine doses were prepared using the same steps by dissolving them in sufficient amount of water prior being administered as oral solutions. Drug Dose (mg/1Kg of body weight) Ephedrine plus caffeine (200:20) 2.09 Ephedrine 0.19 Caffeine 1.90

Experiment ladder. start adaptation Weighing Grouping and marking Sampling Drug administration Sample analysis End Experiment ladder.

D. Experiment outcomes: The loss in body weight was not very significant because rabbits were not extreme obese; and thus the thermogenic effect of the combination was not as high as it will be in obese subjects The three rabbits which received the combination of caffeine and ephedrine showed no symptoms of caffeine or ephedrine overdose and this may be due to coverage of caffeine overdose symptoms by ephedrine. The combination group also showed significant decrease in total cholesterol, HDL and LDL levels and a slight increase in their triglycerides level.

The group which received ephedrine only treatment showed decrease in their physical activity for unknown reason .The group also had poor dietary habits which is mainly an action of the ephedrine. But they showed no noticeable loss in their weight which suggests that ephedrine alone has no effect in body fat mass. Both caffeine only and caffeine plus ephedrine groups showed decrease in their weights which proves the synergistic effect of the combination as weight loss modulators The caffeine group showed a high degree of weight loss but two rabbits out of four were dead, may be due to an upper range dose

the variation in weight and lipid profile among the four groups after 3 weeks of Treatment

E. Conclusion: From the experiment outcomes we conclude that on comparison between the effects of the two drugs separately against the effect of the combination, the combination was found to have more effect on weight, triglycerides and LDL , but less effects on total cholesterol and HDL

F. Recommendations: 1- Further experiments to be carried out with larger sample size, under controlled experimental conditions and for longer period of time to gain more accurate results. 2- Different laboratory animals will help in increasing the predictability of the effect on lipid profile. 3- Other routes if administrations to be studied instead of only oral solutions. 4- More doses with narrow dose range to be used during the experiment to eradicate the overdose symptoms. 5- More investigations towards the effect of ephedrine on caffeine overdose symptoms also should be put under considerations. 6- Preservation conditions of the oral solution must be kept in consideration.  

References: * Rang H. Dale M M, Ritter J M, Flower R J and Henderson G. Rang and Dale’s pharmacology. Seventh ed. London: Elsevier, 2012: 385-393, 185-186, 204-206. * World Health Organization Media Centre. Obesity and Overweight. January 2015. * PubChem. Database, PubChem Compound. National Centre for Biotechnology Information. http//pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound.

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