Ihsan L. Al-Omaria, Fatma U. Afifib and Abdulazim S. Salhaba.
aDepartment of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
bDepartment of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
Pharmacognosy Communications,2012,2,12-20
DOI:10.5530/pc.2012.1.4
Published:january 2012
Type: Research Article
ABSTRACT
Background: Zingiber officinale aqueous extracts have traditionally been used by diabetic patients in Jordan. Objective: The present study aims to evaluate the hypoglycemic and antihyperglycemic effects of ginger crude extract (GCE) in normoglycemic- and streptozotocin (STZ)- diabetic- rats and to assess the possible herb-drug interactions with glibenclamide and insulin. Materials and Methods: Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was determined for GCE at concentrations 25, 50 and 100 mg/kg body weight (BW). GCE was administered to normoglycemicrats as a single dose (1 day) and as a daily dose for 1 week. STZ diabetic rats were treated with the same GCE concentrations (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg BW) together with glibenclamide (5 mg/kg BW) or insulin (1.2 IU/kg BW). Results: Single administration of GCE showed a significant decrease in blood glucose level (BGL) in normoglycemic rats at 1 and 2 h (50 mg/kg BW; p<0.001) while one week administration of GCE did not improve BGL. In STZ- diabetic rats GCE (25 and 50 mg/kg BW) decreased non-fasting BGL (N-FBGL) significantly (p<0.001) at 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 h. The combinations of Glibenclamide (5 mg/kg BW) and GCE at doses (25 or 50 mg/kg BW) exhibited after 4.5 h a significantly reduction in the N-FBGL 26.3% (p<0.001) and 25.1% (p<0.01) respectively; while glibenclamide alone exhibited 7.9% reduction. Also co-administration of GCE (50 mg/kg BW) with insulin caused a significant reduction in the N-FBGL at 2.5 (p<0.001) and 3.5 h (p<0.01) compared to insulin alone. Conclusions: The observed interaction of ginger with glibenclamide and insulin appears to be promising in reducing blood glucose levels and needs further evaluation.
Key Words:Diabetes, ginger, herb–drug interactions, OGTT, STZ- diabetic rats.