Effect of sodium alginate supplementation on weight management and reproductive hormones in polycystic females

Dietary fiber is getting attention these days due to its tendency to improve the reproductive performance in human beings. Sodium alginate (SA) is one of the natural dietary fibers. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of SA on serum insulin, blood sugar, lipid profile, estrogen and testosterone in polycystic (PCOS) females. A single in vivo trial was conducted on thirty adult PCOS females (25 ± 5 years old) with a body mass index (BMI) of 27.5 ± 3.5 kg m-2. Blood samples of all PCOS females were drawn for the initial biochemical analysis and considered as the negative control (NC). A complete randomized design was used to divide the NC group into three equal subgroups (n = 9) i.e. SA3: with 0.03 g; SA6: with 0.06 g per kg body weight per day of sodium alginate; the positive control (PC): metformin 500 mg day-1 for 60 days (two months). A significant reduction (p < 0.05) in the body weight, BMI, blood sugar, serum insulin, lipids and testosterone was observed, while a significant incremental effect (p < 0.05) was observed in the high-density lipoprotein level. The percentages of some physical parameters were also improved like obesity, menstrual cycle, physical activity, psychological issues and hirsutism. Therefore, the study concluded that SA exhibited therapeutic potential for weight management and the improvement of serum testosterone in PCOS females.