Scientists have been scouring the world in recent decades for all manner of miracle plants that can help people slim down.
But none of these has been more promising in early studies than a traditional Chinese medicine known as thunder god vine.
In a paper published in the journal Cell on Thursday, scientists said an extract made from the plant reduces food intake and has led to a dramatic 45 percent decrease in body weight in obese mice.
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Study author Omut Ozcan, an endocrinologist at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said the substance appears to work by enhancing a fat-derived hormone called leptin that signals to the body when it has enough fuel and energy. Humans who lack leptin, can eat voraciously and can become morbidly obese.
"During the last two decades, there has been an enormous amount of effort to treat obesity by breaking down leptin resistance, but these efforts have failed. The message from this study is that there is still hope for making leptin work," Ozcan said in a statement.
In the study, Ozcan found that with only one week of treatment with an extract made from thunder god vine -- which they called Celastrol -- the mice reduced their food intake by 80 percent as compared with those who did not get the extract. Three weeks later, those mice had lost nearly half of their initial body weight.
The results were even more effective than a drastic measure used to reduce weight: bariatric surgery. In addition, scientists reported that they saw other positive health effects from decreased cholesterol levels to improved liver functions.
