Abstract

Objective: To find the efficacy of administering insulin orally with Desmodium gangeticum (DG) extract in diabetes induced rats. Methods: Diabetes was induced in Wistar male rats by streptozotocin and subsequently treated with the mixture of DG/insulin/DG + insulin and compared with diabetic rats. Standard glucose estimation assay described elsewhere was used to determine the diabetic levels. The effects of homeostatic factors (the effect of temperature, gastric juices, pH, trypsin, and mercaptoethanol) on insulin and insulin-DG were analyzed. Results: The test results proved that the reported combination of insulin-DG was effective in maintaining glucose homeostasis. More interestingly, insulin-DG was stable against all the degrading parameters while insulin without DG suffered degradation. A molecular interaction was suggested between DG and insulin through nuclear magnetic resonance and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis. Conclusions: Insulin-DG mix is a potent anti-diabetic agent and importantly, DG extract is protective to insulin when used in prescribed combination and delivered orally. This could be a possible solution for painful subcutaneous injections.

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