ANTIDIABETIC AND HYPOLIPIDEMIC EFFECTS OF CURCULIGO ORCHIOIDES IN ALLOXAN INDUCED EXPERIMENTAL DIABETIC RATS

ABSTRACT

Diabetes mellitus is an incapacitating and often serious disease with increasing prevalence in rural populations throughout the world. In the current study, the putative antihyperglycemic and antihypolipidemic effects of C. orchioides were evaluated in comparison with those of glyclazide, a standard drug for therapy of diabetes mellitus. Diabetes was induced experimentally in 12-hr fasted rats by intraperitoneal injections of Alloxan (120mg/kg b.w.). Subsequent, to oral administration of C. orchioides rhizome (200 mg/kg b.w.) and glibenclamide (10mg/kg.bw/day) to the diabetic rats for 21 days, the following observations were made in comparison with untreated diabetic rats: significantly lower mean levels of fasting blood glucose and glycosylated hemoglobin, significantly elevated serum insulin levels and the extract was also found to have antihypolipidemic activity as evident by significantly (p<0.05) elevated in serum triglycerides, total serum cholesterol, and serum LDL respectively, along with (p<0.05) an increase in serum HDL on C. orchioides treated rats. Histopathology of pancreatic tissue section revealed significant protective effect of C. orchiodes treatment. These results suggest that C. orchiodes exhibits antihyperglycemic and antihypolipidemic effects in alloxan-induced experimental diabetic rats.

Key words: Alloxan, Curculigo orchioides, OGTT, Insulin, Hypoglycemia, Hypolipidaemia.