PTEROCARPUS MARSUPIUM EXTRACT EXAGGERATES ANTI DIABETIC ACTIVITY OF METFORMIN

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus refers to a group of chronic metabolic disorders affecting human societies worldwide which are generally characterized by hyperglycemia. The single drug therapy does not provide adequate clinical results for the treatment of diabetes mellitus and its complications. The patients use herbal drugs and conventional drugs at the same time during their treatment which can lead to both benefit and risk to the health of the patient. Co-treatment of Metformin and Pterocarpus marsupium (PM) on pancreatic α-amylase activity in vitro has been studied to find out the drugherb interaction in diabetes mellitus. Combination index for the combination was calculated to find out the synergistic, additive and antagonistic effects. Significant synergistic effect was seen at lowest herb-drug combination (10μg/ml Metformin + 10μg/ml hydroalcoholic extract of PM) treated group. The additive inhibition of the combination of Metformin with PM against pancreatic α-amylase was also found at other concentrations. The present study also investigated the in vivo antidiabetic and antilipidemic effect of alone herb and in combination with oral Metformin. Parameters like blood glucose, serum insulin, lipid parameters, liver glycogen and reduced glutathione were determined. Combination showed better effect than Metformin alone, reduced dose of Metformin may help to reduce the long term side effects associated with it. These results provide the first evidence for the effect of combination of Metformin and PM in vitro against pancreatic α-amylase as a potential inhibitor to control and prevent diabetes mellitus and reduce the dose of Metformin in the treatment. Results showed that combination treatment group showed significant normalization of all parameters compared to disease and metformin treated group in vivo. But no significant difference was observed in combination treatment with increased dose of metformin.