Abstract
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder that threatens human health. Medicinal plants have been a source of wide varieties of pharmacologically active constituents and used extensively as crude extracts or as pure compounds for treating various disease conditions. Thus, the aim of this study is to assess the anti-hyperglycemic and anti-hyperlipidemic effects and the modes of action of the aqueous extracts of the fruits and seeds of Balanites aegyptiaca (B. aegyptiaca) in nicotinamide (NA)/streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis indicated that 3,4,6-tri-O-methyl-d-glucose and 9,12-octadecadienoic acid (Z,Z)- were the major components of the B. aegyptiaca fruit and seed extracts, respectively. A single intraperitoneal injection of STZ (60 mg/kg body weight (b.w.)) 15 min after intraperitoneal NA injection (60 mg/kg b.w.) was administered to induce type 2 DM. After induction was established, the diabetic rats were treated with the B. aegyptiaca fruit and seed aqueous extracts (200 mg/kg b.w./day) via oral gavage for 4 weeks. As a result of the treatments with the B. aegyptiaca fruit and seed extracts, the treated diabetic-treated rats exhibited a significant improvement in the deleterious effects on oral glucose tolerance; serum insulin, and C-peptide levels; liver glycogen content; liver glucose-6-phosphatase and glycogen phosphorylase activities; serum lipid profile; serum free fatty acid level; liver lipid peroxidation; glutathione content and anti-oxidant enzyme (glutathione peroxidase, glutathione-S-transferase, and superoxide dismutase) activities; and the mRNA expression of the adipose tissue expression of the insulin receptor beta-subunit. Moreover, the treatment with fruit and seed extracts also produced a remarkable improvement of the pancreatic islet architecture and integrity and increased the islet size and islet cell number. In conclusion, the B. aegyptiaca fruit and seed aqueous extracts exhibit potential anti-hyperglycemic and anti-hyperlipidemic effects, which may be mediated by increasing the serum insulin levels, decreasing insulin resistance, and enhancing the anti-oxidant defense system in diabetic rats.