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ABSTRACT
Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease that is raising health concerns and it has been known to be associated with hyperglycemia, lipid dysfunction and complications in cardiovascular. Gongronema latifolium is one of the medicinal plants reported to be used in managing this condition in Africa and most predominantly in eastern Nigeria. This study investigated the effect of n- hexane fraction of this plant as an anti- diabetic agent on the blood glucose level of streptozotocin induced diabetic wistar rats using standard method. Maceration was used to prepare a coarse extract of the leaves of G. latifolium, the extract was fractionated using column chromatography Streptozotozin was injected intraperitoneally in the rat model to induce diabetes in them. Analysis of the blood glucose levels as indicators of diabetes. After 7 days, streptozotocin increased the blood glucose level (P<0.05) of rats indicating hyperglycaemia. Treatment of the rats with n- hexane extract (400 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg) of G. latifolium decreased significantly (P<0.05) the blood glucose level within 32 hours of treatment. The results indicated a significant percentage increase in the body weight of group1, and group 3(), when compared to groups 2, 4 and 5 there was a significant weight loss. The blood glucose results indicated a significant increase in the diabetic control and diabetic treated (p < 0.05) when compared to the normal control 3 days after the induction of streptozotocin. Similarly, it normalized the diabetic treated rats 14 days period after the administration of of n-hexane fraction when compared with the normal control. The standard antidiabetic drug metformin also showed similar effect as the n-hexane fraction of the plant. The liver enzyme AST of groups 4 The extract and fractions did not lower the blood glucose level of non-diabetic rats, this therefore signifies that the intake of G. latifolium This study concludes that the n-hexane extract of G. latifolium can be used as traditional treatment for diabetes mellitus as claimed by local users and this gives credence to its use in ethnomedicine for this purpose.
