Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the hypoglycemic properties of the methanolic extract of Adansonia digitata fruit pulp on blood glucose. Forty eight of the rats were randomly distributed into six. Group one served as the normal control and Group two rats were administered with alloxan (150 mg/kg) intraperitoneally and served as the diabetic control. Groups 3, 4 and 5 were intraperitoneally administered with alloxan (150 mg/kg) and orally administered with methanolic extract of Adansonia digitata fruit pulp (100, 200 and 300 mg/kg) once daily for 4weeks. Group six rats were intraperitoneally administered with alloxan (150 mg/kg) and orally administered with chlorpropamide (84 mg/kg) once daily for 4 weeks. The serum concentration of glucose of all the rats in each group was determined after the 14th and 28th dose of treatment. There was significant (p<0.001) reduction of serum glucose in the three groups of rats administered with methanolic extract of Adansonia digitata fruit pulp at second and fourth week of the treatment. The group of animal treated with chlorpropamide (84 mg/kg) also showed significant (p<0.001) reduction of serum glucose compared to most effective dose of the methanolic extract (300 mg/kg) during the second and fourth week of the treatment. The result of qualitative phytochemical analysis of methanolic extract of Adansonia digitata fruit pulp indicated the presence of glycosides, flavonoids, tannins, saponins, terpenoids and steroids. This result suggests that the methanolic fruit pulp extract of Adansonia digitata possess antidiabetic effect on alloxan induced diabetic rats.

Keywords:

Adansonia digitata, alloxan, hypoglycemic activity, phytochemicals,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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