Hypoglycaemic actions of a medicinal herb, <i>Rothmannia hispida</i> in diabetic rats

Abstract

The effect of oral administration of crude extract of Rothmannia hispida on alloxan induced diabetic rats was studied to valuate the claimed antidiabetogenic effects of the herb on the early symptoms of diabetes mellitus. Twenty albino rats of wistar strain weighing 130-180g were used. Thirteen of these were made diabetic by intraperitoneal injection of alloxan. Administration of the herb extract in a dose of 0.36g/100g body weight commenced after 1 week of untreated diabetes and lasted for seven days. The results showed that treatment with R. hispida significantly reduced plasma glycose from 27.53 ± 2.46 mmol/L in untreated diabetic animals to 13.10 ± 1.84 mmol/L after treatment, (p<0.001). Control glycose was 3.85 ± 0.34 mmol/L. Urine glucose concentration was significantly reduced from 118.78 ± 10.59 to 13.0 ± 2.05 mmol/L following R hispida treatment while no glucose was detected in the control urine. Urine output declined significantly, (p<0.001) from 30.47 ± 8.43 ml per day prior to treatment to 6.54 ± 5.10mls, which was not significantly different from the control values of 2.97 ± 0.28 ml on the last day. Diabetic rats also showed continued loss of weight, which was not reversed by R. hispida treatment, while the control steadily gained weight. These results suggest that crude extract of R. hispida contains active or agents that can possibly reverse diabetic symptoms of hyperglycaemia, polyuria and glycosuria.

Keywords: diabetes mellitus, Rothmannia hispida, hypoglycaemic, urine glucose

Mary Slessor Journal of Medicine Vol. 5(2) 2005: 21-24