Role of natural products as therapeutic option against nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Cinnamon, a spice derived from the inner bark of various plants from genus Cimamomum. It has been used in Asian countries from thousands of years as food flavoring agent with various health benefits [62]. Cinnamon is known to have several beneficial effects on health such as insulin sensitizing and antioxidant properties. As such, cinnamon has attracted a considerable attention from scientific world [63,64]. Cinnamon has been reported to increase insulin sensitivity, insulin release, and regulating protein tyrosine phosphates 1B(PTP1P) and insulin receptors kinase, demonstrating insulinotropic activities of cinnamon [64,65]. A number of studies have confirmed the cinnamon’s therapeutic role in ameliorating lipid profile and in blood glucose levels [63–67]. To investigate whether cinnamon may have potential effect in treating NAFLD, an experimental study was conducted in which NAFD patients were given cinnamon each day for 12 weeks. A significant decrease in serum cholesterol, TG, AST, ALT, and GGT were observed in cinnamon group as compared to control group [68], various studies have suggested that the ability of cinnamon to increase insulin sensitivity, improving lipid levels and glycemic control is due to the number of mechanism involving activation of insulin receptor through autophosphorylation, activation and up regulation of synthesis of glucose transporter 4(GLUT 4) receptor [69,70].

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/cinnamon