Diabetic therapeutic effects of ethyl acetate fraction from the roots of Musa paradisiaca and seeds of Eugenia jambolana in streptozotocin-induced male diabetic rats.

The folklore medicine of primitive people has been greatly appreciated for centuries. Many researchers study the curative efficiency and mode of action of various medicinal plants. Serum glucose level, lipid profile, glucose tolerance, hepatic and muscle glycogen contents as well as the activities of hepatic hexokinase and glucose-6-phosphatase recovered significantly after oral administration of ethyl acetate fractions of Eugenia jambolana (E. jambolana) or Musa paradisiaca (M. paradisiaca) in separate (E. jambolana L.: 200 mg/kg of body weight and M. paradisiaca: 100 mg/kg of body weight) or combined form for 90 days (twice a day through gavage) to streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. The loss in body weight of diabetic animals was reversed and serum levels of insulin as well as C-peptide, which were found to be reduced in diabetic rats, increased significantly after oral administration of the fractions. A histological study of the rats' pancreas revealed that after 90 days of oral treatment with the plant fractions in separate or combined form, the size and volume of pancreatic islets in diabetic treated rats increased significantly compared with the diabetic control group. Treatment of diabetic rats with the combined dose (300 mg/kg of body weight) of plant fractions (200 mg E. jambolana and 100 mg M. paradisiaca) was found to be more effective than treatment with the individual fraction. The doses of E. jambolana and M. paradisiaca selected for this study are the optimum antihyperglycemic doses of the plant fractions, which were determined after conducting a dose-dependent study at various dose levels (50-500 mg/kg) in our pilot experiments. The plant fractions were found to be free from metabolic toxicity. Through HPTLC finger printing, three different compounds were noted in the ethyl acetate fraction of E. jambolana L. and eight different compounds in the ethyl acetate fraction of M. paradisiaca L.