Abstract

Obesity related diseases are on the rise worldwide and obesity is an economic burden on the public health system in most developed and developing countries. The control of obesity is a major challenge that is hard to solve using medication and surgical procedures as those often have serious side effects. Our focus in this article is to highlight the extensive research literature on use of plant-derived chemicals or phytochemicals for control of obesity and obesity related diseases with a particular focus on several types of cancer. We discuss the genes, proteins and pathways involved in obesity and its control, and discuss how current research has revealed the beneficial effects of plant-derived chemicals or phytochemicals on these genes and pathways.

Keywords:Obesity; Phytochemicals; Cancer; Adiposity; BMI; Signalling pathways; Genes