Polyherbal Formulation Ameliorates Diabetes Mellitus in Alloxan-Induced Diabetic Rats: Involvement of Pancreatic Genes Expression

Medicinal plants and herbal formulations have been used as folk medicines for the treatment of hyperlipidemia, diabetes and related metabolic disorders in Asian counties. Current study was designed to evaluate the therapeutic potential of polyherbal formulation consisting of Swertia chirata (Chirata), Artemisia absinthium (Afsanteen boti), Caesalpinia bonduc (kranjwa magz), Bunium persicum (Kala zeera), Gymnema sylvestra (Ghurmar boti), Citrullus colocynthis (Kortumma), Sphaeranthus indicus (Mundi boti) and Cuminum cyminum (Safeed zeera) in alloxan induced diabetic rats. Rats were grouped into 6 groups and induced diabetes using 150mg/kg alloxan monohydrate except control group. Group I served as control, group II was diabetic group and group III was considered +ve control (glibenclamide treated). Group IV, V and VI were treated with 200, 400 and 600mg/kg of polyherbal formulation upto 8 weeks of experiment. Sampling for biochemical parameters and gene expression analysis was done at 8th week of experiment. Results have shown that polyherbal formulation produced anti-diabetic and antihyperlipidemic effects by reducing serum glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin, total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, VLDL levels and increasing serum insulin, glucokinase and HDL levels. Gene expression analysis has revealed that polyherbal formulation upregulated the mRNA expression of Ins-1 and Pdx-1 genes in alloxanized hyperglycemic rats. All these properties of polyherbal formulation make it a potential candidate for the treatment of diabetes. However, further research is required to elucidate its mechanism of action. (C) 2018 PVJ. All rights reserved