Hypoglycemic effect of methanolic extract of Anacardium occidentale leaves in alloxan-induced diabetic rats.

Anacardium occidentale Leave (Anacardiaceae), a plant natively grown in wastelands in Africa is used as a folk remedy for diabetes mellitus. Previous studies, reported the hypoglycemic effect of the aqueous leaf extract of A. occidentale in diabetic rats and its prophylactic activity against the diabetogenic action of streptozotocin This study evaluated the hypoglycemic effect of a methanolic extract of streptozotocin leaves and its fractions in Alloxan-induced diabetic rats in comparison to Tolbutamide, a reference drug. For moderately diabetic rat, A. occidentale caused a 79.2 % change over 4 hours and Tolbutamide caused a 63.1 % change over this same time period. When the rat were considered to be severely diabetic, the A. occidentale decreased the blood glucose levels by 20.8% change over four hours and the mean percent change over 4 hours for Tolbutamide was 47.63%. These values were not considered significant. So the same conclusion can be made about the efficacy of A. occidentale, when compared to the reference drug, Tolbutamide. These results that show that A. occidentale has a similar ability compared with Tolbutamide to lower blood glucose levels.