Effect of Rosemary Extracts on Diabetic and Liver Malfunctional Rats

Abstract

In this study, alcoholic and aqueous extracts of rosemary and its oil were used to investigate their effects on diabetic and liver malfunctional rats by administrating them with STZ or CCl4 for three weeks. The therapeutic effects of rosemary extracts (alcoholic and aqueous) and its oil against acute hyperglycemia induced by STZ in rats showed a decrease in the levels of fasting and postprandial blood glucose of rats treated with alcoholic extract of rosemary. In addition, results showed a restoration of these levels of the rats treated with aqueous extract or oil to their normal ranges after 3 weeks. There is a significant difference in lipid profile between rats treated with alcoholic or aqueous extracts and the negative control, where, the HDL in group administrated rosemary oil is significantly higher than both positive and negative control. The protective effects of rosemary extracts (alcoholic and aqueous) and its oil against liver toxicity induced by CCl4 in rats showed a significant difference between both (negative and positive control) and the activity of AST and ALT in the rats treated by alcoholic and aqueous extracts of rosemary. The protective effects of the plant extracts against liver toxicant occurred by decreasing the activities of these enzymes. Oil rosemary had restored effect more than both ethanolic and aqueous extracts, but not significant. This protective effect occurred by decreasing the activities of AST, ALT and Alp enzymes. No significant (p≤0.05) differences were noticed among the levels of serum total protein for all treatments compared to the negative and positive controls. The levels of total cholesterol and triglycerides recorded high values for the positive controls compared to the negative control. The protective effects of rosemary extracts against liver toxicant occurred by restoring the levels of these parameters to their normal values.