Urtica dioica distillate (Aragh Gazaneh) restores altered glucose metabolism in diabetic rats

A Seghatoleslam; M Akmali; F Zamani-Garmsiri; A Gohari

doi:10.21767/2348-9502-C1-003

Urtica dioica distillate (Aragh Gazaneh) restores altered glucose metabolism in diabetic rats

Joint Event on 3^rd World Congress on NATURAL PRODUCTS CHEMISTRY AND RESEARCH & 12^th WORLD PHARMA CONGRESS
October 16-18, 2017 Budapest, Hungary

A Seghatoleslam , M Akmali , F Zamani-Garmsiri , A Gohari

Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Am J Ethnomed

DOI: 10.21767/2348-9502-C1-003

Abstract

Background: Urtica dioica (UD) is well known as a hypoglycemic plant. While the anti-diabetic properties of its extract is well studied, there are not any published reports regarding its distillate, a drink widely being used in different areas of Iran according to Traditional Iranian Medicine for treating diabetic patients.

Materials and methods: To justify the use of UD distillate (UDD) for treatment of diabetes, a series of experiments were performed on 24 male rats. The groups consisted of two treatment and two control groups, each one containing normal and diabetic rats. During 4 weeks, the rats in the treatment and control groups received UDD and water by gavage, respectively. Every nine days, the rats were weighted and their fasting blood glucose (FBS) values were measured. Following 4 weeks of treatment, all the rats were sacrificed for further experiments. FBS, serum insulin levels and the specific activity of hepatic enzymes including glucokinase, hexokinase and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase were measured using standard methods.

Results and discussion: The amount of insulin secretion and also the specific activities of hepatic enzymes were significantly increased in the treated diabetic group. A significant decrease was also observed in the blood glucose of the treated diabetic rats compared to the diabetic control ones. UDD consumption by diabetic treated rats not only prevented weight loss but also caused a dramatic weight gain. Therefore, these results suggested that UDD administration could improve diabetic conditions by enhancing insulin secretion and liver glucose metabolizing enzymes’ activity and could be used as an anti-diabetic drink as well.