Screening Study of Hypoglycemic Activity of the Herbal Mixtures (Message 1)

The aim. To study the hypoglycemic activity of the herbal mixtures, which are used in folk medicine for the prevention and treatment of diabetes mellitus type 2, but do not have a scientific basis and to establish their conditional therapeutic dose.Materials and methods. The study was performed on male albino rats weighing 180-200 g, which for preventive treatment during 20 days orally received aqueous extracts (1:10) of the studied herbal mixtures at a dose 6 mL/kg/day, 9 mL/kg/day and 12 mL/kg/day and comparison drugs – the officinal herbal mixtures “Arfazetin” at a dose 9 mL/kg/day and metformin tablets at a dose 60 mg/kg/day. The study of hypoglycemic properties and the establishment of a conditional therapeutic dose of the studied mixtures was carried out using glucose loading tests. All experiments were performed in accordance with general ethical principles with the recommendations of the EEC Council directive 2010/63/EU about the protection of animals, which are used for scientific purposes.Results. The results of the study showed that the 20-day preventive treatment by the herbal mixtures reduced alimentary hyperglycemia at the 30th minutes of OGTT and helped regulate carbohydrate tolerance disorders by reducing hyperglycemia at the 15th minutes of IPGTT. The highest hypoglycemic activity showed the herbal mixtures No. 3 (12 mL/kg/day) and No. 4 (12 mL/kg/day), which was almost on a par with the comparison drug –metformin tablets, but exceeded the officinal herbal mixture “Arfazetin”. In addition, the dose-dependence of the effectiveness of all five studied herbal mixtures was established.Conclusions. For the first time, it was conducted the screening study of hypoglycemic activity of the herbal mixtures, which are used in folk medicine for the prevention and treatment of diabetes mellitus type 2. It was determined that the greatest effectiveness in terms of the ability to reduce alimentary hyperglycemia during OGTT and reduce impaired carbohydrate tolerance during IPGTT show the herbal mixtures No. 3 (which includes Urticea folia, Cichorii radices, Rosae fructus, Elymi repens rhizomata, Taraxaci radices) and No. 4 (which includes Arctii lappae radices, Elymi repens rhizomata, Maydis style cum sigmatis, Helichrysi arenarii flores, Rosae fructus). It was established their conditional therapeutic dose of 12 mL/kg/da

Determination of Carboxylic Acids Content in the Herbal Mixtures by HPLC

The aim of the study was to research the qualitative composition and to investigate the quantitative content of some carboxylic acids in the herbal mixtures with established hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic and antioxidant activity in previous studies in vivo. Materials and methods. Studies of carboxylic acid content in the herbal mixtures were performed by HPLC analysis using Agilent Technologies 1200 liquid chromatograph (USA). Identification and quantitative analysis were performed using standard solutions of carboxylic compounds (tartaric, pyruvic, isocitric, citric, succinic and fumaric acids). Conclusions. HPLC analysis of five samples of the herbal mixture with antidiabetic activity showed the presence of six carboxylic acids. The dominant acid in all samples was isocitric acid. Among the most important for the prevention and treatment of diabetes, high levels of succinic and fumaric acids have been identified and established. The obtained data indicate a correlation between the phytochemical composition of the studied herbal mixtures and their pharmacodynamics, which was previously establishe