Obesity: Pathophysiology, monosodium glutamate-induced model and anti-obesity medicinal plants.

Obesity and overweight have increased at an alarming rate in the world during the last three decades. Obesity is a crucial factor in the development of metabolic abnormalities, including glucose intolerance, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, low-grade inflammation and oxidative stress. A similar scinario occurs during the aging process where alterations of the energetic metabolism homeostasis and a chronic systematic low-grade inflammation have been observed.