Blood Orange Reduces Fat Accumulation

MILAN, ItalyItalian researchers found Moro, a blood orange juice, exhibited an anti-obesity effect on fat accumulation, possibly via its anthocyanin content (Int J Obesity. 2010;34:57888). Obesity was induced in male C57/Bl6 mice by feeding a high-fat diet (HFD). Two varieties of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck), Moro (blood orange) and Navelina (blond orange) juices were provided instead of water. The effect of an anthocyanin-enriched extract from Moro oranges or purified cyanidin-3-glucoside (C3G) was also analyzed. Body weight and food intake were measured regularly over a 12-week period.

Dietary supplementation of Moro juice, but not Navelina juice significantly reduced body weight gain and fat accumulation regardless of the increased energy intake because of sugar content. Furthermore, mice drinking Moro juice were resistant to HFD-induced obesity with no alterations in food intake. Only the anthocyanin extract, but not the purified C3G, slightly affected fat accumulation. High-throughput gene expression analysis of fat tissues confirmed Moro juice could entirely rescue the high fat-induced transcriptional reprogramming.