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ABSTRACT
Dalium guineense popularly known as Velvet tamarind, a genus of a legume belonging to the family “Fabaceae” is a medicinal plant known to have not only antioxidant property but also antimicrobial, analgesic, antihepatotoxic as well as many more properties. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a significant role in human cell and antioxidants help protect the cell against oxidative stress by eliminating ROS. Antioxidant enzymes like superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione reductase (GR), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) maintain the balance between pro-oxidants and anti-oxidants. Imbalance between ROS and antioxidant production plays an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus and its complications. In reference to this, this project research was carried out. Twenty five rats were used for this experiment and were randomly divided into five groups. Diabetes mellitus was induced by injecting 50mg of freshly prepared streptozotocin (STZ) which was diluted in 10 ml of normal saline, equivalent to 50mg/kg bwt in a single dose. with only two groups treated with the extract. Two groups were treated with different doses of the plant extract after which the animals were sacrificed and blood sample collected for biochemical assays. The results obtained in this study showed that treatment of diabetic Wistar rats with methanol fraction of ethanol stem bark extract of D. guineense significantly increased the activities of the antioxidant enzymes as well as concentrations of GSH and NO, but it markedly reduced the concentrations of pancreatic total protein and MDA. Important bioactive compounds present in the extract fraction may have be responsible for the observed pharmacological effect.
