Polyherbal Formulation Ameliorates Diabetes
Mellitus in Alloxan-Induced Diabetic Rats: Involvement of Pancreatic
Genes Expression
Asra Iftikhar, Bilal Aslam*, Faqir
Muhammad and Tanweer Khaliq
Institute of Pharmacy, Physiology and
Pharmacology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan *Corresponding author: cba933@gmail.com
Abstract
Medicinal plants and herbal formulations have
been used as folk medicines for the treatment of hyperlipidemia, diabetes and
related metabolic disorders in Asian counties. Current study was designed to
evaluate the therapeutic potential of polyherbal formulation consisting of
Swertia chirata (Chirata),
Artemisia absinthium (Afsanteen boti),
Caesalpinia bonduc (kranjwa magz),
Bunium persicum(Kala zeera),
Gymnema sylvestra (Ghurmar boti),
Citrullus colocynthis (Kortumma),
Sphaeranthus indicus (Mundi boti), and
Cuminum cyminum (Safeed zeera) in
alloxan induced diabetic rats.
Rats
were grouped into 6 groups and induced diabetes using 150mg/kg alloxan
monohydrate except control group. Group I served as control, group II was
diabetic group and group III was considered +ve control (glibenclamide treated).
Group IV, V and VI were treated with 200, 400 and 600mg/kg of polyherbal
formulation upto 8 weeks of experiment. Sampling for biochemical parameters and
gene expression analysis was done at 8th week of experiment. Results
have shown that polyherbal formulation produced anti-diabetic and
antihyperlipidemic effects by reducing serum glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin,
total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, VLDL levels and increasing serum insulin,
glucokinase and HDL levels. Gene expression analysis has revealed that
polyherbal formulation upregulated the mRNA expression of Ins-1 and Pdx-1 genes
in alloxanized hyperglycemic rats. All these properties of polyherbal
formulation make it a potential candidate for the treatment of diabetes.
However, further research is required to elucidate its mechanism of action.
To Cite This Article: Iftikhar A, Aslam B, Muhammad F and Khaliq T,
2018. Polyherbal formulation ameliorates diabetes mellitus in alloxan-induced
diabetic rats: involvement of pancreatic genes expression. Pak Vet J, 38(3):
261-265. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2018.036