Antihyperglycemic activity of the aqueous extract of Urtica dioica
Introduction
Urtica dioica L. or nettle belonging to the family of Urticaceae, is widely ground in Morocco. Some people in oriental Morocco use nettle as food supplement with salad without any side effect. Moreover, nettle is known in folk medicine in oriental Morocco as hypotensive and antidiabetic [1], [2]. Nettle is stated to possess hypoglycemic properties [3]. Moreover, it has been shown that a preparation containing various plants with nettle had antidiabetic activity [4]. However, other studies reported no hypoglycemic action of this plant [5], [6]. The purpose of this study is to examine the hypoglycemic effect of aqueous extract of U. dioica on hyperglycemia induced by oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and on alloxan-induced diabetic rats The intestinal glucose absorption was measured in situ in a perfused jejunum segment in order to determine one of the probable mechanism of nettle's antihyperglycemic effect.
Section snippets
Preparation of extract
Nettle was collected from Oriental Morocco and dried at room temperature. Dried aerial material (10 g) was infused in 100 ml of distilled water for 20 min. The extract evaporated in vacuo gave a crude residue (yield: 21%).
Animals
Male Wistar rats weighing 250–350 g and Swiss mice of both sexes weighing 18–22 g were kept in a room maintained at a temperature of 23±2 °C and under 12 h light/dark schedule (light: 07.00–19.00 h).
Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT)
Animals were fasted for 16 h before the OGTT. Glucose (1 g/kg) was
Results and discussion
In alloxan-induced diabetic rats, the oral administration of the aqueous extract of U. dioica (500 mg/kg) did not modify the blood glucose level. On the contrary, a strong antihyperglycemic effect of U. dioica (250 mg/kg) was observed at the first hour after glucose loading in rats under OGTT (Fig. 1). The fall of glycemia was approximately 33% vs. control. This effect was still present 120 min after the oral administration of glucose. Glibenclamide at dose of 2 mg/kg resulted more active at
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by grants from the Centre National de Recherche du Maroc (CNR, PROTARS III. Ref: D14/10). Saı̈d Maâllem, Mustapha Badraoui and Karim Ramdaoui are acknowledged for technical support and animal breeding.
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