ABSTRACT
Diabetes mellitus is a global health problem affecting with more
people in developing than developed countries. Insulin and oral
hypoglycemic drugs have remained the corner stone for the management of
diabetes mellitus. Unfortunately, apart from having a number of side
effects, none of the oral synthetic hypoglycemic agents has been
successful in maintaining euglycaemia. The use of medicinal plants for
the treatment of diabetes mellitus has gained recognition and
recommendation by the World Health Organization especially in developing
countries where access to the conventional treatment is expensive and
not readily accessible.
Various plants and plant extracts have been found to play an
important role in the treatment of diabetes and these plants were
believed to have hypoglycemic properties. Cabbage is one of such
medicinal plants, whose therapeutic application has a folkloric
background. The plant enjoys widespread reputation as a remedy for
various ailments. Most of the research work done on cabbage has been on
extract. Hence, a scientific verification of its use as a supplement in
food would be important in establishing a pharmacological basis for some
of the claimed ethnomedicinal uses of the plant. This scientific
verification forms the basis of the present investigation using animal
models. The aim of the study is to determine the modulatory role of
cabbage supplement on blood glucose levels and some physiological
parameters in alloxan induced diabetic Wistar rats. While the objectives
were to determine the effects of cabbage on serum glucose levels, to
determine the effects of cabbage on lipid profile and also to determine
the effects of cabbage on serum liver enzymes activities on alloxan
induced diabetic Wistar rats respectively. The study was designed to
investigate the effect of cabbage supplement on blood glucose, lipid
profile and serum liver enzymes on alloxan induced diabetic Wistar rats.
A total of twenty five Wistar rats of both sexes weighing 100 – 150 g
were used. They were randomly allocated into five groups of five rats (n
= 5 rats/group). Group one were diabetic rats given distilled water and
served as the negative control. Group two were diabetic rats that
received 5 mg/kg b/w of glibenclamide orally and served as positive
control. While, groups three, four and five were diabetic rats that
received 10, 25 and 50% cabbage supplement, respectively. All groups
were treated for thirty days. Blood glucose and some physiological
parameters including lipid profile, aspartate aminotransferase (AST),
alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP), were
measured in all rats. Blood glucose level was significantly (p< 0.05)
reduced in treated diabetic rats in comparison to the diabetic control
rats. In addition, serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, and
low-density lipoprotein (LDL) were significantly decreased (p<0
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CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Diabetes is a disease which affects the metabolism of
carbohydrates, proteins, and fat due to absolute or relative deficiency
of insulin secretion with or without varying degree of insulin
resistance (Asadujjaman et al., 2011). The number of
individuals with diabetes has been increasing due to population growth,
aging, urbanization, and increasing prevalence of obesity and physical
inactivity (Sarah et al., 2004). The World Health Organization
(WHO) estimated the diabetic population to increase up to 300 million or
more by the year 2025 (Patel et al.,
2012). The most important distinctive feature of diabetes is an
elevated blood glucose concentration, but this abnormality is just one
of a number of biochemical and physiological changes that occur
(Olaitan, 2012). Hypercholesterolemia and hyper triglyceridemia are
common complications of diabetes mellitus (Akhtar et al.,
2007). The treatment of diabetes mainly involves the use of
hypoglycaemic drugs in addition to insulin but the unwanted side effects
of these drugs prompted a demand for new compounds for the treatment of
diabetes (Asadujjaman et al., 2011). The drive for change from
orthodox to herbal medicines is to an extent due to theadverse
reactions, undesirable side effects of synthetic drugs, the cost of
buying modern antidiabetic drugs, which is beyond the reach of the lower
class citizens and the belief that natural products are safer to the
biological systems (Mohammed et al., 2007). It has now become
necessary to search for new compounds in order to overcome these
problems, and several traditional medicines are now used to manage
diabetes mellitus in different societies all over the continents (Raju et al., 2011).