The Efficacy of Achillea Falcata on Diabetes Mellitus Management

Background Objective: Diabetes is one of the most common diseases. Many methods are used tomanage the elevating blood glucose level, which varies between medications, insulin and traditionaltherapy. Many diabetic patients in Syria use Achillea Species and other herbal plants as part of theirhypoglycemic therapy. The present study evaluates the role of A.Falcata (A.F) as a traditional medicine and its efficacy in reducing blood glucose level. Methods Materials: Forty five Healthy volunteers participated in the study (19 male, 26 female, average age 23.7 and 22 years respectively).7 of them with no diabetic family history.12 had 1st degree diabetic relatives and 26 had 2nd degree diabetic relatives. Oral glucose tolerance test OGTT (50g glucose) was carried out twice; before and after administrating 70 ml of A.F aqueous extract (0.04g/mL), followed by the calculation of the incremental area under curve (IAUC) for both tests. Five diabetic patients used the extract twice a day for one week following herbalist recipe without interrupting their usual medication. Results: No difference in basal IAUC was observed between female and male patients. IAUC after A.F use was (2727.0 ± 1355.3) significantly smaller than the basal IAUC (3172.5 ± 1344.3) in the studied group (p=0.05). Effect of A.F extract on reducing IAUC was obvious in the 1st degree group(p=0.03). Fasting blood glucose had diminished in two of five diabetic patients. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that the aqueous extract of Achillea falcata could have a hypoglycemic effect, which may support herbalist’s traditional recipes. However, further investigationsare needed.