Studies on the administration of Vernonia amygdalina Del. (Bitter leaf) and glucophage on blood glucose level of alloxan

Full Length Research Paper

Studies on the administration of Vernonia amygdalina Del. (Bitter leaf) and glucophage on blood glucose level of alloxan – Induced diabetic rats

Modu S.*, Adeboye A. E., Maisaratu A. and Mubi B. M.

Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science. Department of Human Physiology and Department of Medicine College of Medical Science University of Maiduguri. Nigeria

*Corresponding author. E-mail: shemodu@yahoo.com.

Accepted 10 January, 2013

Abstract

This study was aimed at investigating the glycemic effect of Vernonia amygdalina Del, a common Nigerian plant in combination with a hypoglycemic drug, metformin, 21 experimental animals were used. Diabetes was induced using Alloxan Monohydrate. When the blood glucose level was tested using the glucose oxidase kit, it was observed that the group of animals administered with a combination of Vernonia amygdalina extract and metformin shows significant decrease in the blood glucose level compared to the diabetic control and group of animals administered with plant extract alone having the result (4.9 ± 1.2 Fasting blood sugar level, 6.1 ± 1.2 two hours postprandial) plant extract singly (6.2 ± 3.8 Fasting blood sugar level 8.1 ± 3.8 two hours postprandial of the combination of metformin with plant extract singly respectively). A change was observed in the body weight of the experimental rats. Group I (Normal control) shows continuous increase in the body weight from the first week of experiment to the fourth week, having the peak of the body weight to be in the fourth week of the experiment. Group II (diabetic control) shows significant reduction in the body weight from the first week to the last week Group III and IV were observed to have decrease in body weight from induction period to week two, but a steady increase was observed from week three to four of the experiment (at the onset of treatment). Therefore combining metformin with the plant extract of vernonia amygdalina as drug extract mixtures produced more hypoglycemic effect than using metformin or the plant extracts singly.

Key words: Bitter leave, glucophage, diabetes, glucose.