The Effect of Herbal Medicine and Natural Bioactive Compounds on Plasma Adiponectin: A Clinical Review

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) are one of the major public health concerns globally. Most of the NCDs including insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, fatty liver disease, and coronary heart disease are related to obesity and are called obesity-related NCDs (OR-NCDs). However, adipocytes can reduce OR-NCDs by secreting adiponectin. Adiponectin has an inverse relationship with body fat. Obese people have impairment in differentiating pre-adipocytes to adipocytes, the process facilitated by adiponectin. Adiponectin directly increases insulin sensitivity and reduces obesity-related insulin resistance by down-regulating hepatic glucose production and increasing fatty acid (FA) oxidation in skeletal muscle. Considering the various beneficial effects of adiponectin on health, increasing adiponectin might be a promising approach to prevent and treat OR-NCDs. Recent studies have shown that nutraceuticals and medicinal compounds isolated from plants could prevent and treat various diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), diabetes mellitus, obesity, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. However, to our knowledge, the effect of these natural products, including herbal supplements and functional foods on adiponectin, has not yet been fully reviewed. The main aim of this review is to summarize the effects of nutraceuticals and herbal bioactive compounds on plasma adiponectin concentrations based on clinical studies. It can be concluded that medicinal plants, and herbal bioactive compounds, particularly curcumin, anthocyanins, resveratrol, soy, walnut, and dihydromyricetin can be used as adjunct or complementary therapeutic agents to increase plasma adiponectin, which could potentially prevent and treat NCDs.