Morinda citrifolia fruit juice augments insulin action in Sprague-Dawley rats with experimentally induced diabetes.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The use of additional medicines by patients with chronic medical illness like diabetes mellitus is on the increase. We investigated the effect of fruit juice of Morinda citrifolia on blood glucose of diabetic rats alone or when combined with insulin.

METHODS

Twenty adult male Sprague Dawley rats with body weights 140-210 g were used for the experiments. They were randomly allocated into groups of five, with five rats in each group. The first group, (Group A) served as control and received standard rat chow and water, throughout the duration of the study. Group B received noni juice treatment, after induction of diabetes, for 4 weeks. Group C rats received fixed dose insulin treatment (Humilin 70/30) in two divided doses, at a dose of 0.6 units/Kg body weight/day, following induction of diabetes, for 4 weeks. The Group D rats received fixed dose insulin as well as noni juice, following induction of diabetes for 4 weeks. We monitored blood glucose level by measuring fasting blood sugar weekly. The result of the experiments show that after an initial hyperglycemia, following alloxan induced diabetes, treatment with noni juice restored reduced blood sugar but euglycaemia was not achieved (Group B).

RESULTS

At the end of 4 weeks of experimentation. The mean fasting blood sugar level of 8.0 +/- 0.8 mmol/L following combination therapy, in which insulin treatment was combined with noni juice for 4 weeks, was lower than when either noni juice 15.4 +/- 1.5 mmol/L or insulin was used alone (P < 0.05). 12.9 +/- 1.6 mmol/L.

CONCLUSION

In this study, a synergistic action with insulin was demonstrated by fruit juice of Morinda citrifolia.