In herbal medicine Garcinia Cambogia is used to make people lose weight and lower their blood cholesterol level. As its name indicates, Garcinia Cambogia is a plant native to south-east Asia, spontaneous in the tropical climate areas of southern India, Indochina, Cambodia and the Philippines which is used in slimming products for presence in the rind of the fruit of hydroxycitric acid . This substance acts on the enzyme citrate lyase or directly on the acetylcoenzyme A, blocking the synthesis of fatty acids, thus preventing the formation of adipose tissue. As a consequence there is a limited conversion of sugars into fats and a sense of prolonged satiety and the triglycerides and cholesterol present in the blood are mostly used, with a consequent decrease in their blood levels.

What is fat tissue in the human body?

Adipose tissue has several important functions:

• It constitutes a considerable reserve of energy substances and water;
• It acts as an insulator, limiting the dispersion of heat from the body surface;
• Facilitates the adaptation of the different parts of the organism between them.

In humans the differentiation of adipose tissue begins in the last 3-4 months of intrauterine life and then continues in the first years of life, to become in some subjects significant during adulthood, with very considerable individual variations, in relation to the breed, to sex, constitution, nutrition status . Under normal conditions it constitutes about 10% of the total weight of the body mass, a value that increases considerably in obese subjects. Therefore pathological accumulations occur in obesity and in some endocrine diseases, as it is closely linked to the general metabolism, whose oscillations follow: it increases when the quantity of food introduced exceeds the requirement in relation to energy consumption.

The synthesis of sugars, fats and proteins taken with food occurs at the level of the mitochondria through the Krebs cycle, with energy being produced through the respiratory chain connected to it. In the main lipogenic tissues (liver, intestine and adipose tissue) when the ingestion of food, and in particular of sugars, exceeds the needs of the body, a part of the citrate produced in the Krebs cycle is introduced into the cytoplasm, where it is broken down into oxalacetic acid and acetyl-CoA by the enzyme ATP-citratoliasis . Oxalacetic acid is the starting product for the synthesis of fats, which are then stored mainly in the subcutaneous adipose tissue.

Garcinia and its mechanism of action

The use of garcinia to lose weight is justified by the presence of hydroxycitric acid, a substance useful in case of obesity, hypercholesterolemia and excess of triglycerides, because it intervenes in the synthesis of fats and in the regulation of food intake.

We have seen that in the adipose tissue ends that part of the food ingested, not used by the body, which serves to maintain the integrity of the organs, skin, muscles or to produce energy (it is said that the body "burns" the calories consumed with food): thus sugars, proteins and lipids introduced in excess through food are transformed into fat stored in adipose tissue; the transformation requires the use of particular enzymes, and one of these, citrate lyase, is inhibited by hydroxycitric acid.

Hydroxycitric acid by inhibiting the action of citrate lyase, limits the storage of calories in the form of fat storage . It also stimulates the hepatic synthesis of glycogen starting from glucose, with an increase in the deposit of this reserve sugar in the liver. The brain, informed of the increase in glycogenic deposits in the liver, reacts by inhibiting the sense of hunger and stimulating instead that of satiety, since this means that the body's energy reserves have been reconstituted and therefore it is no longer necessary to introduce other food .