Ameliorating Attribution of Diet Mixed Coccinia indica Leaf Extracts in Experimentally Alloxan-Induced Diabetic Wistar Rats in a Dose Dependent Approach

Context: Some plants have been claimed to have anti-diabetic potential. Coccinia indica is one of them. The plant has been used since ancient times for treating diabetes mellitus in the herbal medicine system.

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to identify the therapeutic effect of leaf extract of Coccinia indica as well as to determine its safety profile so that the plant material could be used to ameliorate the diabetic condition.

Materials and Methods: The extract of Coccinia indica were soaked with ethanol. Alloxan monohydrate induced diabetic rats were fed with ethanol extract of C.indica individually. Metformin, a well-known and widely used anti diabetic drug was used as a standard drug as in pilot study, it has been observed that alike metformin plant extract can restore the elevated blood glucose level but does not cause hypoglycemic condition.

Results: Diabetes was induced in rats by intraperitoneal injection of alloxan monohydrate at a dose of 150 mg/Kg bodyweight and ethanolic extract of leaves of Coccinia indica was fed to the rats at dose of 500, 750, 1000 mg/kg. We measured blood glucose level on diabetic and non-diabetic rats throughout the study time. After measuring blood glucose level, it was detected that the all doses of Coccinia indica diminish the abnormally elevated blood glucose level of rats. However, only does 750 mg/kg significantly (p<0.05) reduce the blood sugar. So, medium dose provided the highest efficacy due to higher consumption of food and dosage intake. Whereas in low dosage, rats consumed the food but the dosage was lesser. On the contrary, in high dosage, due to bitter taste of the extract rats consumed less food and dosage.

Conclusion: The study concludes that both metformin and leaf extract of Coccinia indica improved the pathological condition induced by diabetes. It substantially demonstrates that the extract of leaves of Coccinia indica could be used as a considerable therapy to treat diabetes.