## 5 Medicinal Plants and Obesity  
The increasing risk of obesity is associated with unhealthy plant foods [90; 91], and consumption of healthy plant foods may be appropriate to decrease inflammation factors like TGF-\(\beta\) and hs-CRP [92], and plants which may show great potency to prevent obesity may have significant potential to inhibit pancreatic lipase [93]. The negative relationship between water hardness in water purification plants and the percentage of obese people has been reported [94], while the effective intervention within a complex system approach to manage obesity may be formed by plant secondary metabolites [95]. Phytochemicals with anti-obesity impacts are phenolic acids (o-Coumaric acid, Caffeic acid, Chlorogenic acid), Curcuminoids (Curcumin), Lignans (Podophyllotoxin), Flavonols (Quercetin), Isoflavonoids (Genistein, Daidzein, Glycitein), Flavones (Apigenin, Luteolin, Tangeritin), Flavans-3-ol (Catechin), Phytosterols (Diosogenin, Brassicosterol, \(\beta\)-Sitosterol, Campesterol), Anthocyanins (Cyanidin, Delphinidin, Malvidin, Pelargonidin, Peonidin), and Alkaloids (Caffeine, Capsaicin) [96]. Wheat (_Tritcium aestivum_) sprout (TAEE) meaningfully reduced serum total cholesterol (TC), body weight, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in highfatdiet (HFD)-fed mice, and decreased lipid accumulation in epididymal white adipose tissue (EWAT) and liver. TAEE-treated mice indicated significant reduction in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor \(\gamma\) (PPAR\(\gamma\)) and fatty acid synthase expression in EWAT, which proved its efficacy for therapy for obesity and related diseases [97]. It has been found that luteolin, which is a Chinese herb, may be putative Furin inhibitor with tremendous benefits against Dengue Fever, and application of Chinese herbals and ion channel inhibitors can restrict the endothelial penetration of SARS-CoV-2 [98]. Natural phenolic compounds can be beneficially applied as food or fortified foods to control obesity [99]. Wild edible species from Southern Italy such as _Daucus carota_ L., followed by _Bellis perennial_ L. and _Asparagusofficialis_ L. showed inhibitory activity on NO production and protein denaturation, and _D. carota_ indicated the best lipase inhibitory potential, which represented them as the appropriate candidates and the potential therapeutic agents in the treatment of obesity and inflammatory disorders [100]. _Rosmarinus officinalisis_ and _Prunus avium_ contain the highest amounts of gallic acid, quercetin, ferulic acid, and epigallocatechin gallate which can be utilized against obesity in Turkish folk medicine [101]. The impacts of gut microbiota on obesity have been discovered in most animal and some human trials, and certain strains of _Bacteroides_, _Frimicutes_, and _Latchobacillus_ have anti-obesity activities [102]. Apple, berries, chili, grapes, turmeric, sorghum, soy, and barley show anti-obesity efficacy via improving the diversity of gut microbiota, down-regulating obesogenic gut microbiota, and up-regulating anti-obesity gut microbiota [102]. Plant-based bio-active and fiber-enriched diets help in the alleviation of obesity and related diseases [103]. The most famous traditional medicinal plants in India for treatment of diabetes mellitus ailments, and potent candidates and substitutes to synthetic drugs in obese models are _Acalypha indica_, _Perguliar ademia_, and _Tinospora cardiolia_[104]. Folk herbal medicines for obesity are _Zingiber officinal_ Roscoe, _Carica papaya_ L., _Hubiscussabadariffa_ L., _Baulinia variegata_ L., _Foeniculum vulgare_ Mill., _Caralluna tuberculita_ N.E.BR., _Prunus avium_ (L.), _Citrus medica_ L., _Senna alexandrina_ Mill., _Rosmarinus officinalisis_ L. [105; 106], _Fucus vesiculosus_, and _Citrus aurantium_[107]. In South Africa, three medicinal plants, namely _Curtisia dentate_, _Cissaempelos capensis_, and _Schotia latifolia_ were repeatedly highlighted by the traditional healers and the local dwellers to have weight-reducing properties [108].