Vet World   Vol.13   August-2020  Article-35

Hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activity of combined milk thistle and fenugreek seeds in alloxan-induced diabetic albino rats

Background and Aim: Despite the availability of antidiabetic drugs, they are not free from associated adverse side effects. This study aimed to evaluate the hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects of oral administration of seeds from two medicinal plants: (1) Milk thistle and (2) fenugreek.

Materials and Methods: Plant seeds were washed in distilled water and ground with a coffee grinder. Alloxan was used to induce diabetes in 20 male albino rats. Diabetic rats were randomly divided into two groups: (1) Group 1 (n=10), diabetic rats fed with 0.5 g/kg milk thistle and 2 g/kg fenugreek seeds per day and (2) Group 2 (n=10), diabetic rats fed standard rodent food for 4 weeks.

Results: Oral administration of milk thistle and fenugreek seeds for 2 weeks resulted in significant improvement in body weight, blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in alloxan-induced diabetic rats. After 4 weeks, this ameliorative effect was significantly elevated with respect to blood glucose (155.00±9.70 mg/ dL vs. 427.50±5.70 mg/dL; p<0.001), HbA1c (5.5±0.19% vs. 13.65±1.77%; p<0.001), cholesterol (281.50±10.95 mg/dL vs. 334.30±6.80 mg/dL; p<0.001), triglyceride (239.60±6.87 mg/dL vs. 284.20±9.95 mg/dL; p<0.01), and body weight (265.30±8.10 g vs. 207.40±11.4 g; p<0.01) as compared with non-treated diabetic rats.

Conclusion: Milk thistle and fenugreek seeds possess hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic properties and could be used as natural compounds that are suitable as parent compounds for the development of new antidiabetic drugs. Keywords: fenugreek seeds, hypoglycemic activity, hypolipidemic activity, milk thistle seeds.

Keywords: fenugreek seeds, hypoglycemic activity, hypolipidemic activity, milk thistle seeds.

How to cite this article: Saadh MJ (2020) Hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic activity of combined milk thistle and fenugreek seeds in alloxan-induced diabetic albino rats, Veterinary World, 13(8): 1732-1736.

Received: 24-04-2020  Accepted: 06-07-2020     Published online: 29-08-2020

Corresponding author: Mohamed Jamal Saadh   E-mail: msaadeh@meu.edu.jo

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.1732-1736

Copyright: Saadh, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.