Obesity is one of the most concerning health problems globally. At the moment, medicinal plants have been widely studied in order to assist in the treatment of obesity instead of the developed drugs. From our previous study, Thai medicinal plants were tested through screening methods regarding anti-obesogenic activity and several candidates were selected. Subsequently, in this study, 2 of the candidate plants naming Acacia concinna (Wild.) DC., and Cymbopogon nardus (L.) Rendle were selected

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... studied in more detail on the mechanistic aspect related to lipid metabolism. The plants were extracted in 50% (v/v) aq. methanol and resuspended in 10% DMSO to be tested in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and NCTC 1469 hepatocytes. The cells were treated with the plant extract and the effect on expression of lipid metabolism related genes were examined using RT-qPCR. The target genes related to lipid metabolism are listed as following: adipogenesis (PPARγ, C/EBPα), lipogenesis (FAS, ACC-1, SREBP-1), lipolysis (HSL, ATGL, perilipin-1) and fatty acid β-oxidation (PPARα). In 3T3-L1 adipocytes, A. concinna plants downregulated adipogenesis genes, lipogenesis genes, and lipolytic genes. On the other hand, C. nardus has a difference in some genes such as upregulated C/EBPα and no significant changes in ATGL. Furthermore, In NCTC 1469 hepatocytes, 2 plants acted distinctively in each gene. A. concinna lowered all the target gene expressions with some being significantly different but some were not. C. nardus downregulated gene expression of C/EBPα, FAS, SREBP-1, HSL, ATGL and PPARγ but no significant changes were observed in ACC-1 and PPARγ. A. concinna and C. nardus might have potential to combat obesity through improving the lipid metabolism, which can act as anti-adipogenic and anti-lipogenic agents. Further study such as in vivo study will be conducted to strengthen the data.