Abstract :
A study of ancient literature indicates that diabetes was fairly well known and well conceived as an entity in India. Plantbased drugs have been used against various diseases since a long time. The nature has provided abundant plant wealth for all the living creatures, which possess medicinal virtues. The essential values of some plants have long been published, but a large number of them have remained unexplored to date. Therefore, there is a necessity to explore their uses and to conduct pharmacognostic and pharmacological studies to ascertain their therapeutic properties. In fact, nowadays, diabetes is a global problem. Hence, the present study aims to open new avenues for the improvement of medicinal uses of Tinospora cordifolia (Composite) for the selected area for diabetes. The acute oral toxicity studies of the extracts revealed no toxic effects up to the levels of 2000mg/kg b.wt. The aqueous and alcoholic extracts of 20 and 30mg/kg body weight of Tinospora cordifolia was screened for the presence of hypoglycemic and antidiabetic activity. In this study diabetes was induced by a single IP dose Streptozotocin in 72hrs fasted rats. The FBGL was carried on 7th, 14th and 21st day and OGTT was measured on 8th, 15th and 22nd day. Glibenclamide was taken as the standard and the results are quite comparable with it. The studies were indicated that the leaves of Tinospora cordifolia are effective in regeneration of insulin secreting ?cells and thus possess antidiabetic activity. The aqueous and alcoholic extracts showed significant effect in decreasing the Fasting blood Glucose level and oral glucose tolerance test of rats and it’s also showed good hypoglycemic activity in normal glycemic rats. The preliminary phytochemical analysis of the extracts of Tinospora cordifolia revealed the presence of Alkaloids, Flavonoids, Steroids, Tannins, Anthraquinones, Terpenoids and Cardiac glycoside as the possible biologically active principles.
Keyword :
Tinospora cordifolia, Streptozotocin, Glibenclamide, FBGL and OGTT.