Most plant materials contain fiber and the fiber content of fruits have been reported to possess certain blood cholesterol lowering action and aid in the prevention of large bowel disease reported that fruits are low in calorie and can as well help reduce one’s calories intake as part of a weight loss diet and enlisted Cola lepidota as an under-utilized fruit. All these research findings point to the fact that plant constituents have therapeutic potentials. Cola lepidota is a member of the family of Sterculiaceae and belongs to a group called drupes. The pod of Cola lepidota is yellowish and roundish and is also called Yellow Monkey Kola, while the white variety which is Cola parchycarpa has more cylindrical shape and is also called White Monkey Kola. Cola lepidota is cultivated throughout the tropical regions of the world. It is commonly found in Southern Nigeria between the months of June to November. Cola lepidota fruits are highly nutritious and medicinal and both Cola lepidota (having yellow pod), Cola parchycarpa (having white pod) and Cola lateritia (having red pod) all belong to the family of monkey kola. Cola lepidota is mostly consumed fresh and it has a very short life span probably due to its high moisture content and its hard texture which limits its consumption particularly among the vulnerable group (i.e., children and aged) due to poor dentition. Cola lepidota is a selected specie for this study because of its traditional use in some parts of Abia State as a weight reducer and research findings have shown that it contains significantly higher phytochemical constituents than other species and it is more widely distributed. Okudu reported that Cola lepidota juice contains significantly higher phytochemical constituents than Cola parchycarpa. Also Okudu were able to investigate the phytochemical constituents of the membranes and seeds of Cola lepidota and revealed that B-vitamins, particularly riboflavin and niacin were found in significant amount in Cola lepidota membrane and both C. lepidota and C. parchycarpa had substantial amounts of phytochemicals (particularly alkaloids, phenols, flavonoids and saponins. Essien detected from their phytochemical screening, alkaloids, saponins, terpenoids, carbohydrates, and flavonoids in the seeds and fruit pulp extracts of C. lepidota K. Schum and C. rostrata. No research has been conducted yet on Cola lepidota seed with respect to its weight reducing potentials in high fat fed female albino wistar rats. Therefore, the present study remains the foremost research to reveal the weight reducing potentials of the said seed in rats. Nonetheless, the high phytochemical values obtained in Cola lepidota seed makes it an important seed that needs to be fully exploited. Some researchers have reported that C. lepidota is employed in Nigerian folk medicine as febrifuges, for pulmonary problems and cancer related ailments. The leaf and stem bark extracts of C. lepidota have been studied with respect to its antioxidant activity, anticancer and acute toxicity. According to the problem of obesity may be initially due to uneven distribution across population, however, urbanization, change in lifestyle and dietary habit, change in structure and technology, more leisure time and sedentary activities as well as reduced body exercise may be largely contributory. Currently, more than 1 billion adults are overweight and at least 300 million of them are clinically obese. WHO also reported that women are more likely to be obese than men in all WHO regions. According to WHO, in Africa, Eastern Mediterranean and South East Asia, women had roughly double the obesity prevalence of men.  The data presented on the prevalence of overweight and obesity from the 2013 - 2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS) on US citizens showed that women were more obese (about 40%) than men (35%) while the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases showed that women had extreme obesity (9.9%) than men (5.5%). An excerpt from Women’s Strength Training Anatomy by Frederic Delavier shows that one of the main morphological differences between men and women is the greater amount of fat that women carry. This according to softens the outline of the muscles, more or less erases the osseous indicators, and rounds out the surfaces while creating characteristic folds and grooves. Frederic further revealed that fat in normal women represents between 18% and 20% of body weight, whereas in men it represents only 10% to 15%. The reason for this difference, Frederic says, is that women at some point in their lives may nourish a foetus and then a baby from their own reserves, so women have to stock energy in the form of fat in anticipation of future pregnancies (and must stock even more energy during the last two trimesters of pregnancy). WHO reported that obesity has nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016 and that in 2016, more than 1.9 billion adults, 18 years and older, were overweight. Of these, over 600 million were obese. Also, WHO reported that most of the world’s population lives in countries where overweight and obesity kill more people than underweight. Worldwide, at least 2.8 million people die each year as a result of being overweight or obese, and an estimated 35.8 million (2.3%) of global Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) are caused by overweight or obesity. World Health Organization (WHO) also looked at overweight and obesity distribution in Nigerians as it relates gender as reported according to the 2010 WHO survey data on Nigeria, the prevalence of overweight was 26% and 37% in men and women, respectively, while the prevalence of obesity was 3% and 8.1% in men and women, respectively. It was reported that in most countries within the European region where there is prevalence of obesity, the number of obese women surpasses the number of obese men, sometimes as much as 2–1. A study carried out in Jos, Nigeria revealed that the prevalence of overweight and obesity amongst the sampled adult Nigerians was 21.4% in males and 23.5% in females (Male: Female=1:1.3, P<0.05). The high burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the developing countries is attributable to the increasing incidence of atherosclerotic diseases, perhaps due to urbanization and higher risk factor levels (such as obesity, diabetes, dyslipidemia, hypertension, etc. With urbanization, changing lifestyles, diminished assess/availability of fresh vegetables as well as increased consumption of processed foods, the number of people with obesity tends to increase. Therefore, a critical management of traditional medicinal plant resources has become a matter of urgency . For the sake of this investigation, standard drugs such as orlistat, simvastatin, and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) will be used to monitor the weight reducing effects of the seed extract. The Cola lepidota fruit was identified at Forestry Department, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria. The below are the pictures of Cola lepidota fruits and seeds.

With Best Regards,
Tony Blair
Journal Coordinator
American Journal of Phytomedicine and Clinical Therapeutics