Biol. Pharm. Bull., 29(11),2202-2205, November 2006

Regular Articles

Antidiabetic, Antioxidant and Antihyperlipidemic Status of Heliotropium zeylanicum Extract on Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetes in Rats

Kandasamy MURUGESH,^a Veerendra YELIGAR,^a Deepak Kumar DASH,^a Pinaki SENGUPTA,^a Bhim Chandra MAITI,^b and Tapan Kumar MAITY^*,a

^a Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Jadavpur University; Kolkata-700032, India: and ^b Indian Institute of Chemical Biology; 4, Raja Mullick Road, Kolkata-700032, India. * To whom correspondence should be addressed. e-mail: sarugesh@yahoo.com

The potential role of the methanolic extract of Heliotropium zeylanicum (BURM.F) LAMK (MEHZ) in the treatment of diabetes along with its antioxidant and antihyperlipidemic effects was studied in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Oral administration of (MEHZ) 150 and 300 mg/kg/d for 14 d significantly decreased the blood glucose level and considerably increased the body weight, food intake, and liquid intake of diabetic-induced rats. MEHZ significantly decreased thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and significantly increased reduced glutathione, superoxide dismutase and catalase in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats at the end of 14 d of treatment. The study also investigated the antihyperlipidemic potential of MEHZ. The results show that the active fraction of MEHZ is promising for development of a standardized phytomedicine for the treatment of diabetes mellitus.

Key words Heliotropium zeylanicum; streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat; antihyperglycemic activity; antioxidant potential; antihyperlipidemic effect