Plants with antidiabetic effects are being used in traditional medicine for thousands of years and
phytogenic products continue to play an essential part in pharmacy and medicine. The need to
investigate highly effective and safe drugs for diabetes mellitus remains a significant challenge for
modern medicine.
Myrtus communis L. fruits and leaves had medicinal and nutritive properties and
were utilized in the traditional medicine as an antidiabetic agent. This study was designed to investigate
the hypoglycemic, and hypolipidemic effects of M. communis fruits hydroalcoholic extract also pointed
toward the assessment of its role in oxidative-antioxidative systems in Streptozotocin-induced (STZ)
diabetic rats. Forty male Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups which were supplemented
with M. communis fruits hydroalcoholic extract in drinking water for five weeks. The Malondialdehyde
levels (MDA) in kidney, heart, liver and muscles tissues were estimated by using High-Performance
Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). In addition, the blood glucose levels and serum insulin levels were
assessed by the radioimmunoassay. While, the Total Cholesterol (TC), High-Density LipoproteinCholesterol

(HDL-C), Triglyceride (TG), Erythrocyte Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) and whole blood
glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) were estimated utilizing commercial biochemical kits. The
experimental groups of rats which were treated with M. communis fruits hydroalcoholic extract showed
a reduction in serum glucose, lipid profile, and tissues malondialdehyde levels and an increase in insulin,
serum paraoxonase, arylesterase, erythrocyte SOD, and the whole blood GSH-Px activities. These
findings suggest that M. communis fruit hydroalcoholic extract has hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic and
oxidative stress inhibitory activities in STZ-induced diabetic rats. Future studies are needed to address
the role of M. communis fruits extract on humans that have diabetes.

Title

Biomedical Research

Publisher

Scientific Publishers of India

Publisher Country

United Kingdom

Indexing

Thomson Reuters

Impact Factor

0.219

Publication Type

Prtinted only

Volume

29

Year

2018

Pages

2727-2734