Research Article Four-Week Consumption of Malaysian Honey Reduces Excess Weight Gain and Improves Obesity-Related Parameters in High Fat Diet Induced Obese Rats Suhana Samat, 1,2 Francis Kanyan Enchang, 1,2 Fuzina Nor Hussein, 3 and Wan Iryani Wan Ismail 1,2,4 1 Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Puncak Alam Campus, 42300 Bandar Puncak Alam, Selangor, Malaysia 2 Clinical BioPharmaceutics Research Group (CBRG), Pharmaceutical Sciences Core, UiTM, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia 3 Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia 4 School of Fundamental Science, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia Correspondence should be addressed to Wan Iryani Wan Ismail; waniryani@gmail.com Received 22 July 2016; Accepted 9 October 2016; Published 26 January 2017 Academic Editor: Andrzej K. Kuropatnicki Copyright © 2017 Suhana Samat et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Many studies revealed the potential of honey consumption in controlling obesity. However, no study has been conducted using Malaysian honey. In this study, we investigated the eicacy of two local Malaysian honey types: Gelam and Acacia honey in reducing excess weight gain and other parameters related to obesity. he quality of both honey types was determined through physicochemical analysis and contents of phenolic and lavonoid. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were induced to become obese using high fat diet (HFD) prior to introduction with/without honey or orlistat for four weeks. Signiicant reductions in excess weight gain and adiposity index were observed in rats fed with Gelam honey compared to HFD rats. Moreover, levels of plasma glucose, triglycerides, and cholesterol, plasma leptin and resistin, liver enzymes, renal function test, and relative organ weight in Gelam and Acacia honey treated groups were reduced signiicantly when compared to rats fed with HFD only. Similar results were also displayed in rats treated with orlistat, but with hepatotoxicity efects. In conclusion, consumption of honey can be used to control obesity by regulating lipid metabolism and appears to be more efective than orlistat. 1. Introduction 2.1 billion people worldwide are overweight and obese, regardless of their socioeconomic status reported in 2013 [1]. hus, both overweight and obesity are identiied as a major contributor to other chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and even certain cancers [2]. Various factors are known to lead to this health problem, but ease of accessibility to unhealthy foods has been identiied as the major culprit [3]. Honey can be described as one of the functional foods. Besides its natural sweet taste, honey has a low glycemic index and other medicinal properties. Its beneit to health and its usage have been well known to mankind since ancient times and were recorded in medical texts from various civilizations [4, 5]. Findings from many studies also showed the ability of honey in controlling overweight and obesity when consumed orally, thus making it a potential antiobesity agent [6–10]. However, the efect using the local honey is still unknown and to be investigated in this study. A variety of honey found in Malaysia are diverse, which include both blossom and honeydew honey, due to their tropical climate and being rich in loral sources [11]. Biochem- ical and pharmacological activities of honey vary, depending on its location, weather and humidity, nectar source, and handling during harvesting and storage [11]. In this study, two types of Malaysian honey were used to observe its efects on high fat diet-induced Sprague-Dawley male rats. Gelam honey, categorised as a blossom honey, was produced by Apis dorsata, a wild and native honeybee, from nectars of Melaleuca cajuputi trees and harvested from the forest. Meanwhile, Acacia honey is honeydew honey produced by Hindawi Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2017, Article ID 1342150, 9 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/1342150