Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) and Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) Tea Drinking Suppresses Subjective Short-term Appetite in Overweight Women

Appetite controlling has been an main strategy for regulating food intake and energy balance in obesity treatment. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of drinking tea of the medicinal herbs, fennel and fenugreek, on the subjective appetite in overweight Korean women. The study was conducted using a placebo-controlled, single-blinded, randomized, and 3-way crossover design. Nine healthy women were given fennel tea (FT), fenugreek tea (FGT), or placebo tea (PT). After drinking a given tea, a lunch buffet was provided and then food consumption of subjects was analyzed. Subjective appetite, hunger, fullness, desire to eat, and prospective food consumption were measured at seven independent time point using a visual analog scale (VAS). Mean age of 9 subjects were 49.7 +/- 4.5 years and their mean body mass index were 24.6 +/- 0.6 kg/m2. There was no significant difference in food consumption in the lunch buffet after drinking each tea; however, with respect to the subjective appetite scale, FGT decreased hunger, led to less prospective food consumption, and increased feelings of fullness compared with the PT (p < 0.05). Similarly, the consumption of FT resulted in decreased hunger, less prospective food consumption, and increased feelings of fullness compared with the PT (p < 0.05). The area under the curve of VAS graph indicated that FGT resulted in a higher feeling of fullness than the PT (p < 0.05). In conclusion, drinking the FT and FGT were significantly effective aid to suppress subjective appetite among overweight women in South Korea.

Genetic diversity in germplasm resources of Trigonella foenum-graecum based on biological characters / 中草药

Objective To analyze the genetic difference of biological characters on germplasm resources of fenugreek(Trigonella foenumgraecum) and to study the genetic diversity of them.Methods Thirty-two fenugreek germplasm resources from Ningxia, other provinces in China,and abroad were used to investigate the biological characters on plant height,pod formation height,nodes per main stem,branches number,effective pod per plant and so on.The tested materials were planted in the farm of Ningxia University.The genetic diversity based on the phenotype was analyzed by Word′s minimum variance method.Results The variance analyses of ten biological characters were of significance or the most significance except pod length.The branches number and effective pod per plant possessed the largest coefficient of variance(CV). The pairwise Euclidean distance of the tested materials ranged from 1.11 to 9.49,averaged 4.01.Mean Euclidean distance of single tested material ranged from 2.94 to 6.54.The tested germplasm resources could be divided into three groups in D=6.86,which coincided with the district of collecting germplasm resources on the whole.Conclusion There is a little genetic difference in various fenugreek germplasm resources.Compared with Euclidean distance of germplasm resources from Ningxia,the Euclidean distance of most from abroad is far away from that of other provinces in China.