Patrícia Rosane Leite de Figueiredo¹, Ana Luiza de Albuquerque Siebra¹, Luiz Jardelino de Lacerda Neto¹, Larissa Rolim de Oliveira¹, Andreza Guedes Barbosa Ramos¹, Gyllyandeson de Araújo Delmondes¹, Izabel Cristina Santiago Lemos¹, Cícera Norma Fernandes¹, Saulo Relison Tintino¹, Álefe Brito Monteiro¹, Dayanne Rakelly de Oliveira¹, Francisco Elizaudo de Brito Junior¹, Francisca Valéria Soares de Araújo Pinho¹, Valter Menezes Barbosa Filho¹, Francisco Assis Bezerra da Cunha¹, Alexandre Magno Rodrigues Texeira¹, Roseli Barbosa¹, Diniz Maciel de Sena Junior¹, Cícero Francisco Bezerra Felipe¹, José Galberto Martins da Costa¹, Henrique Douglas Melo Coutinho¹, Irwin Rose de Alencar Menezes, Marta Regina Kerntopf^1,

Obesity in adults is characterized when the Body Mass Index (BMI) is greater than or equal to 30. It is estimated that 1.7 billion people in the world are overweight or obese, and more than one third of U.S. adults (35.7%) are obese. There are a variety of factors that play a role in obesity, such as behavior, environment, and genetic factors. Usual countermeasures include adequate physical activity, avoidance of calorie-dense foods, and use of certain drugs for promoting weight loss. Surgery is an extreme measure and anyone considering it must have failed consistently in losing weight through lifestyle changes and less invasive methods. The main drugs currently employed in obesity treatment present dangerous side effects, namely: elevation of blood pressure, insomnia, constipation, headaches, among others. For this reason, a wide variety of natural materials have been explored for their obesity treatment potential. Considering that natural anti-obesity products have different mechanisms, the recommended approach to research a more effective obesity treatment, reaching the associated synergistic effects, must involve the combination of natural products and/or products with multiple activities. This chapter describes several natural products with anti-obesity activity, and active components and mechanisms of action to combat obesity.

anti-obesity activity, metabolic syndrome, natural products, obesity