Abstract :
Treatments of diabetes with available agents comes with one or more side effects, hence, there is need for
continual search of alternative treatment agents from medicinal plants. This study was designed to evaluate
the antioxidant property and hypolipidaemic effect of Phyllanthus fraternus methanolic leaf extract in
diabetic rats. The antioxidant property was evaluated using DPPH free radical scavenging activity and ferric
reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay. Thirty rats were used out of which twenty four were diabetic.
Diabetes was induced by administration of streptozotocin (STZ) intraperitoneally at 60 mg/kg body weight
(bw). Five experimental groups (Group A-E) of six rats each were used, the treatment lasted for 28 days;
group A was normal control, B was diabetic control while C was standard control treated with metformin at
5mg/kg bw., group D and E received (200 and 300) mg/kg bw of the extract respectively. The IC50 for free
radical scavenging activity of P. fraternus and ascorbic acid were 43.98 mg/ml and 47.04 mg/ml
respectively, while that of ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) were 48.17mg/ml and 51.95mg/ml for
P.fraternus and ascorbic acid respectively. Treatments with different doses of methanolic leaf extract of
Phyllanthus fraternus and metformin were shown to significantly (p
Keyword :
Antioxidant, hypolipidaemia, Streptozotocin, Phyllanthus fraternus, extract