**1. Introduction**

Obesity is a major contributor to total burden of disease in developing countries. Obesity has been an important target for health professionals to reduce obesity-related cardiovascular disease (CVD), notably dyslipidaemia, hypertension, and coronary artery disease [1]. Prolonged administration of a high-fat diet (HFD) to rats has been shown to develop a status of impaired-lipid metabolism, as evidenced by higher levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) in rats fed with a HFD [2]. Apart from impairment of lipid metabolism, attention has also recently focused on the role of low grade chronic inflammation as one of the mechanisms of obesity related disorders. It has been speculated that an excess of adipose tissue accumulation is a precursor of pro-inflammatory cytokines' production contributing to adverse obesity-related complications, such as insulin resistance and increased blood pressure [3].

Recent decades have shown that there is increasing interest to assess the potential medicinal and therapeutic properties of natural products to prevent obesity-related CVD [4,5]. The naturally occurring products have been shown to possess anti-atherogenic e ffects by improving lipid profile, reducing oxidative stress status, and increasing the antioxidant enzyme defence mechanism [6,7]. Bee bread is one of the bee kingdom products formed by bees. It contains a mixture of bee pollen and bees' digestive enzymes, and is abundantly found in the beehive. After 2 weeks, anaerobic lactic acid fermentation process contributes to a greater nutritive value of bee bread [8]. Bee bread is a well-balanced diet, as it contains carbohydrate, lipid, and protein sources, and essential minerals and vitamins, such as vitamins C, B1, B2, E, iron, calcium, and magnesium [9]. It also contains phenolic compounds, such as p-coumaric acid, kaempherol, isorhamnetin [10], apigenin, chrysin, ferulic acid, ca ffeic acid, gallic acid, naringenin, and quercetin [11,12]. Bee bread has been shown to o ffer protection against tumour cells reactivity and possess other biological properties, such as antimicrobial and hepatoprotective e ffects [11,13,14]. Moreover, it has been shown to exert a hypocholesterolaemic property by significantly reducing 15.7% of TC and 20.5% LDL levels in overweight and obese patients [15]. Studies of antioxidant activities of bee bread have been reported in few countries, including Lithuania [16], Araucania [17], Poland [11], Ukraine [18], Romania [19], and Georgia [20]. However, no study has been reported on its possible anti-atherogenic e ffect in obesity so far. Hence, the present study was aimed to determine the phenolic compounds' presence in Malaysian bee bread and its anti-atherogenic e ffect in HFD-induced obese rats.
