This study was conducted to investigate the inhibitory effect of 70% ethanol extract of yacon leaf on the metabolic syndrome induced by a high fructose (HF) diet in male Sprague-Dawley (SD) white rats. Five-week-old rats were divided into four groups and the experiment was carried out for 8 weeks. AIN-76A diets were fed to the control group and 60% HF diet to the metabolic syndrome induced group. Yacon leaf extracts were orally administered to the two experimental groups from the 5th week of the HF diet. The HF diet increased body weight, blood pressure, epididymal fat weight and size, total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL-C, insulin and aorta thickness of the rats, but yacon leaf extracts administration reduced these changes. These results suggest that yacon leaf has an excellent preventive effect on the metabolic syndrome by improving obesity, dyslipidemia and blood pressure induced by an HF diet in rats. Therefore, yacon leaf has the potential for use as an ingredient in novel health foods for the prevention of the metabolic syndrome in the future.

Keywords: yacon leaf, metabolic syndrome, obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension