A future weapon in the battle against obesity and diabetes could come in the form of an oil derived from the seeds of wild almond trees, according to researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology.

The key to the oil’s potential lies in its ability to affect certain microorganisms living in our bellies. In a study researchers found that adding sterculic oil to the diets of obese mice increased their sensitivity to insulin. This was due to the oil’s effect on three types of microorganisms that live in the guts of the mice.

As a result, the researchers saw a “statistically significant improvement in glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in the obese mice,” says Shreya Ghosh, a student Missouri S&T. The sterculic oil had no effects on lean mice.

Sterculic oil is extracted from the seeds of the wild almond tree known as Sterculia foetida.

Other studies have shown that obese mice deficient in the hormone leptin have a different composition of “gut microbiota” than do lean mice. Leptin helps regulate metabolism, and a deficiency of the hormone can contribute to obesity.
 
A diet supplemented by sterculic oil also correlated with lower levels of three types of gut microbiota — Actinobacteria, Bacilli and Erysipelotrichia — in the obese mice.