The incidence of obesity and overweight has increased dramatically recently,now constituting a serious threat to public health.Currently,functional food and food ingredient are attracting more and more attentions on prevention or treatment of obesity.In this study,we focused on echnoside A (EA),a substance derived from sea cucumber,to investigate if EA could improve the development of obesity.Mice were given a high fat diet with or without EA for 8 weeks to induce obesity.Supplement of EA decreased body weight gain and body fat,serum triglyceride (TG),and hepatic lipid as well.Some enzyme involved in lipogenesis and fatty acid catabolism are examined in order to elucidate the mechanism of EA.The results showed that hepatic lipogenesis was suppressed,as indicated by the reduced activities and mRNA expression of FAS and SCD1.In addition,EA treatment accelerated fatty acid oxidation in liver with increased activity and mRNA expression of CPT.The effects of EA are probably mediated by an increased adiponectin production,thereby activating downstream signal of AMPK and PPARα to stimulate fatty acid utilization.In conclusion,dietary EA decreased body fat and attenuated hepatic lipid accumulation under high fat diet,may serve as a promising nutritional therapy in obesity treatment.