Abstract :
Many herbs have been developed as functional foods, drugs and supplements for lowering blood glucose in diabetic patients. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia and distinctive complications. Traditionally, both bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) and ant lion (Myrmeleon sp.) larvae were consumed by some people for treating DM. In the study, a combination of bitter gourd and ant lion larvae was evaluated for its antidiabetic effect in insulin resistance rats, a model of type 2 DM. In the study, insulin resistance condition in rat was induced by intraperitonial injections of human long acting insulin 0,5 IU/kgBW three times daily for 15 days. A single treatment was per orally administered in the rats at the day 16. Blood glucose levels before and one hour after drug administration were determined and compared using pair-sample t test. The combination of bitter gourd and ant lion larvae (75:25 w/w percentage) exhibited hypoglycaemic effect by 32.20±2.57%. Metformin, an antidiabetic agent with extrapancreatic action, decreased the blood glucose level by 39.29±2.96%. The result indicated that the combination of bitter gourd and ant lion larvae is potential to be developed as a blood glucose-lowering agent for diabetic patients.
Keywords :
Diabetes mellitus , insulin resistance , bitter gourd , ant lion larvae
