At last, a natural weight loss medicine that works. Or at least, that is what researchers at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital think they found.

Known as Celastrol, the ‘thunder god vine’ is a traditional herb in Chinese medicine. It reduced the weight of mice by nearly half.

Weight loss is a multi-billion dollar industry and profiteers have scoured the globe trying to find the next breakthrough supplement. Most rely on hearsay and conjecture. However, the recent study published by Harvard scientists may be the real deal.

In the first week Celastrol was administered, the mice reduced their food intake by 80 percent. Within three weeks, the mice had lost 45 percent of their body weight.

The extract works by manipulating the body’s leptin, a fat-derived hormone that signals to the body that it has had enough to eat. Previous studies have shown that humans lacking leptin are more likely to become obese.

“During the last two decades, there has been an enormous amount of effort to treat obesity by breaking down leptin resistance, but these efforts have failed. The message from this study is that there is still hope for making leptin work,” sadi study author Omut Ozcan, an endocrinologist.

In addition to reducing the rate of consumption, Celastrol also reduced cholesterol levels in the mice- improving liver function. The researchers believe that their all natural extract may be even better for morbidly obese patients than bariatric surgery.

“Celastrol is found in the roots of the thunder god vine in small amounts, but the plant’s roots and flowers have many other compounds,” said Ozcan. “As a result, it could be dangerous for humans.”

No toxic effects were detected in the mice given the extract. Still, the scientists believe more research needs to be done before an commercial application can be made of the Chinese thunder god vine.