07/17/2018 / By Michelle Simmons
More than just a cooking ingredient, Welsh onion (Allium fistulosum) has been used as a traditional medicine for treating colds, influenza, abdominal pain, headache, and heart disease. Research has yet discovered another health benefit of this superfood. In the study, published in the journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, researchers revealed that it could also fight against the adverse effects of a high-fat diet.
Researchers at the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine looked at the effects of ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Welsh onion on body weight and other obesity-associated parameters in mice. There were four groups of mice: a standard control group, a high-fat diet control group, and high-fat diet groups treated with an herbal weight-loss supplement called garcinia cambogia containing either aqueous Welsh onion extract or ethanolic Welsh onion extract. The treatment lasted for six weeks.
The researchers then measured the mice’s body weight and obesity-associated parameters, such as liver and fat weight, adipocyte size, serum lipid profiles, liver expression of adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), and fat expression of uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2).
AMPK is a cellular energy sensor that contributes to energy homeostasis, stimulating catabolic pathways, such as glucose transport and fatty acid β-oxidation, and inhibiting anabolic pathways such as fatty acid, cholesterol, and protein synthesis; while UCP2 is a mitochondrion inner membrane transporter that promotes fatty acid oxidation in fat and reduces body weight.
Based on the results, researchers observed that the aqueous and ethanolic Welsh onion extracts contain naturally-occurring flavonoid compounds ferulic acid and quercetin. These are reported to suppress body weight, fat buildup, and hyperlipidemia in obese mice by boosting antioxidant activities. The Welsh onion extract treatments dramatically reduced body weight, fat, and liver weight, and fat buildup in mice fed with a high-fat diet.
In addition, they found that the Welsh onion extracts substantially improved the high-fat-diet-induced changes in serum leptin and insulin-like growth factor 1 levels, liver expression of AMPK, and adipose tissue expression of UCP2. The Welsh onion extracts also increased high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and adiponectin levels, while the ethanolic Welsh onion extract solely improved the total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.
The researchers, therefore, concluded that the extracts of Welsh onion could potentially be used as functional food material or a therapeutic agent for treating obesity and the adverse effects of high-fat diets.
Welsh onion also goes by the names Japanese bunching onion, green onion, salad onion, scallions, spring onion, and bunching onion. Native to China, this plant does not have bulbs but instead has hollow leaves and scapes. It has a milder taste compared to the regular onion and can also be cooked or eaten raw. Moreover, it provides many health benefits, which includes the following.
Read more news stories and studies on Welsh onions and other natural medicines by going to AlternativeMedicine.news.
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Tagged Under: Allium fistulosum, bunching onion, food as medicine, food cures, food is medicine, food science, green onion, Japanese bunching onion, metabolic disorders, natural cures, natural health, obesity, obesity-associated diseases, plant-based medicine, salad onion, scallions, slender, spring onion