Plants have been historically used for diabetes treatment and related anti-inflammatory activity throughout the world; few of them have been validated by scientific criteria. Recently, a large diversity of animal models has been developed for better understanding the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus and its underlying inflammatory mechanism and new drugs have been introduced in the market to treat this disease. The aim of this work is to review the available animal models of diabetes and anti-inflammatory activity along with some in vitro models which have been used as tools to investigate the mechanism of action of drugs with potential antidiabetic properties and related anti-inflammatory mechanism. At present, the rigorous procedures for evaluation of conventional antidiabetic medicines have rarely been applied to test raw plant materials used as traditional treatments for diabetes; and natural products, mainly derived from plants, have been tested in chemically induced diabetes model. This paper contributes to design new strategies for the development of novel antidiabetic drugs and its related inflammatory activity in order to treat this serious condition which represents a global public health problem.
Background Globally, the prevalence of diabetes mellitus is increasing at an alarming rate. This chronic pathology gravely troubled the human health and quality of life. Both insulin deficiency and insulin resistance are involved in the pathophysiology of diabetes mellitus. Moreover, insulin resistance is being diagnosed nowadays in a growing population of diabetic and obese patients, especially in industrialized societies. There are lots of conventional agents available to control and to treat diabetes, but total recovery from this disorder has not been reported up to this date. Plants provided a potential source of hypoglycemic drugs and are widely used in several traditional systems of medicine to prevent diabetes. A few reviews with less attention paid to mechanisms of action have been published on antidiabetic plants. Objectives The present review focuses on the various plants that have been reported to be effective in improving insulin sensitivity associated with diabetes. Key findings In this work, an updated systematic review of the published literature has been conducted to review the antidiabetic plants improving insulin sensitivity and 111 medicinal plants have been reported to have a beneficial effect on insulin sensitivity using several in-vitro and in-vivo animal models of diabetes. Conclusion The different metabolic and cellular effects of the antidiabetic plants improving insulin sensitivity are reported indicating the important role of medicinal plants as potential alternative or complementary use in controlling insulin resistance associated with diabetes mellitus.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a water extract from the aerial parts of Calamintha officinalis Moench., after either a single dose or daily oral administration for 15 days, on plasma blood glucose concentrations and basal insulin levels in normal and streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats (STZ diabetic rats). The results clearly demonstrated the hypoglycaemic effect of this plant extract in both normal and STZ diabetic rats. In addition, no changes were observed in basal plasma insulin concentrations after treatment with this plant in normal or STZ diabetic rats, indicating that the underlying mechanism of the plant's pharmacological action seems to be independent of insulin secretion. We conclude that the aqueous C. officinalis extract exhibits a significant hypoglycaemic effect in normal and STZ diabetic rats without affecting basal plasma insulin concentrations, and supports, therefore, its traditional use by the Moroccan population.
This study aims to evaluate the cardiovascular effect of Nigella sativa L. aqueous extract (NSAE) in normal rats. The in vivo experiment showed that the intravenous injection of NSAE at the doses of 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg of body weight produced a dose dependent reduction in the mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) (p<0.001) accompanied by a significant fall in heart rate (p<0.01). In the in vitro experiment, incubation of NSAE during 30 min caused a right shift of the contraction response curve of aortic ring to Norepinephrine (NE) with a reduction of the maximal contraction response (p<0.01). Endothelium destruction significantly reduced the vasorelaxant effect of NSAE at a dose of 30 mg/ml (p<0.01). Furthermore, Nitric oxide synthase inhibitor: Nω-Nitro-L-Arginine Methyl Ester (L-NAME) produced a significant reduction (p<0.01) of the in vitro vasorelaxant effect of NSAE at a dose of 30 mg/ml. We conclude that NSAE possess a rapid and dose dependent in vivo hypotensive effect in normal rats which may be probably due to the inhibition of parasympathetic tone. In isolated aortic ring, NSAE possess a potent inhibitor of contractile response to NE which may be probably due to an increase in the endothelial nitric oxide synthesis.
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