Biochemical Effects of Piper Guineense (African Black Pepper) in Female Diabetics: Opportunities for Diabetes Treatment

Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the biochemical effects of oral doses of Piper guineense (P. guineense) leaf extract on female diabetics using experimental animals.
 Methods: The animals, albino wistar rats, were divided into six groups (n=7). Animals in group 1 received water and feed only. Animals in groups 2 to 6 were induced with diabetes using alloxan. Methanolic leave extracts of P. Guineense were administered to groups 2 to 4 in 40 mg/kg, 80 mg/kg and 100 mg/kg body weights representing low, medium and high doses respectively. Group 5 animals were treated with 10 mg/kg body weight of Glibenclamide (Antidiabetic drug) and group 6 animals were left untreated. All treatments were carried out orally and lasted for a period of 14 days. At the end of the 14 days, the animals were humanely sacrificed through cardiac puncture and the blood samples collected for the analyses of some liver and kidney function parameters using assay kits.
 Results: The results showed that the oral doses of methanolic leave extract of P. guineense had no negative alterations on the biochemical parameters analyzed namely, 1) Lipid profile (Triglyceride, Low Density Lipoprotein, Total Cholesterol and High Density Lipoprotein levels), 2) electrolytes profile (Sodium, Potassium, Chloride, Bicarbonate, 3) Urea) and 4) Creatinine levels. Furthermore, there was a significant reduction in the urea levels of treated animals and marked but insignificant reduction in the total cholesterol level and increase in High Density Lipoprotein at P<0.05.
 Conclusion and Implication for Translation: The reported antidiabetic P. guineense leaf extract caused no adverse biochemical changes in female diabetic rats. This implied that the extract may not distort the lipid and electrolyte profiles of female diabetics and could be pharmacologically safe in the management of female diabetics. It further implied that the Piper, Uziza, commonly taken after childbirth by nursing mothers in some tropical countries may maintain the lipid and electrolyte balance and consequently, prevent hypercholesterolemia and hypertension.
 Keywords: • Diabetes • Piper guineense • Lipids • Electrolytes • Methanolic extracts • Black pepper
 
 Copyright © 2019 Gordon et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Continuous Intake of High Doses of Piper guineense (Ashanti pepper) Aqueous Seed Extract Impairs Renal Function in Wistar Rats

“…A previous study done on diabetic wistar rats showed that methanolic extract of P. guineense, given in moderate doses, had ameliorative effect on the serum electrolyte derangements caused by diabetes. 19 The histological analysis revealed that the control group had normal kidney architecture, while in the experimental group, there was a dose dependent changes in the cyto-architecture of the kidney (Figure 3). When the highest dose of P. guineense was administered, there was some level of cyto-architectural distortion of the renal tissue.…”