You have no items in your shopping cart.
ABSTRACT
Lemongrass tea (Cymbopogon citratus) is a widely consumed beverage for nourishment and a remedy of diabetes mellitus in Africa locally. This study is aimed at evaluating the effect of lemongrass on the glucose levels, weight, and the liver lactate dehydrogenase enzyme of normal and diabetic albino rats. Intraperitoneal injection of Streptozotocin was used as inducer for diabetes mellitus. The lemongrass was prepared by boiling for 10mins filtered and freeze dried to obtain the extract. Forty five (45) male albino rats (Wistar strain) were used for this experiment. The animals were divided into four (4) groups: normal control (n = 5), diabetic control (n = 15), normal treated (n = 5), and diabetic treated (n = 15). The normal control rats were only injected with citrate buffer and fed ad libitum throughout the course of the experiment, to serve as the control. The diabetic control rats were injected with the Streptozotocin at a dose of 45mg/kg and fed ad libitum to serve as control for the diabetic group. Injection of streptozotocin resulted in a significant increase (p < 0.05) in blood glucose levels in the diabetic rats compared to the control rats. The rats in the treated groups were given the extract 400mg/kg body weight for 21 days and the blood glucose levels and weight were recorded. The results showed that lemongrass significantly (p > 0.05) reduced blood glucose levels in the normal rats though the effect was not as strong on the diabetic treated rats. In addition the normal treated rats experienced non-significant (p < 0.05) weight loss. A non-significant decrease (p > 0.05) was observed in liver lactate dehydrogenase activities of the treated rats indicating no injury to the liver. This data reveals the hypoglycemic effect of Cymbopogon citratus and its weight reducing properties.
