Abstract

Background: The prevalence of diabetes mellitus continues to rise worldwide and treatment with oral hypoglycemic drugs leads to numerous side effects and huge monetary expenditure. Therefore active research on identification of new antidiabetic drugs with minimal side effects from medicinal plants is a challenge according to WHO recommendations. In this aspect, the present study was undertaken to evaluate the antihyperglycemic potential of Pithecellobium dules plant in streptozotocin (STZ) induced diabetic rats. Methods: Diabetes was induced in male wister rats by intraperitoneal administration of STZ (45 mg/kg.b.w).Fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels were measured by glucose-oxidase & peroxidase method. The statistical analysis of results was carried out using and one-way analysis (ANOVA) followed by Student t-test. Results and Discussion: Antihyperglycemic potentials of plant of Pithecellobium dules extract has been investigated at the doses of 150, 300 and 600 mg/kg body weight orally administered to streptozocin-induced diabetes male wistar rats. Treatment of streptozocin diabetic male wistar rats with the extracts caused a significant (P<0.01) reduction in the blood glucose levels. The highest activity resides at the dose of 600 mg/kg body weight with mean percentage blood glucose level change of 55.32% after 6 hours of extract administration while the other two doses 150 and 300 mg/kg have blood glucose level change of 40.45% and 47.14% respectively after 6 hours of extract administration. This result suggests that the Pithecellobium dules plant extracts possess antihyperglycemic effect on streptozocin-induced diabetic male wistar rats. Conclusions: The plant extract is capable of managing antihyperglycemia and complications of diabetes in STZ induced diabetic rats. Hence, this plant may be considered as one of the potential sources for the isolation of new oral anti hypoglycemic agent(s) Keywords: Antihyperglycemic activity, Streptozocin, Pithecellobium dules, Diabetes mellitus

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