Antidiabetic potentials of the methanol leaf extract of Oxytenanthera abyssinica

Oxytenathera abyssinica is used for the treatment of diabetes mellitus in folklore medicine in Nigeria. In this study, we evaluated its antidiabetic activity in alloxan-induced diabetic mice. Diabetes was induced in the mice by a single intraperitoneal injection of alloxan monohydrate and the fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels measured with blood from the tail snip at 0, 1, 3 and 6 h. The activity was compared with reference drug, glibenclamide (2 mg/kg) and negative control. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was evaluated by loading glucose to rats at the dose of 2,000 mg/kg and checking their FBG at 0, 60 and 180 min. Antioxidant activity was evaluated using ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and 1, 1- diphenyl-2- hydrazyl (DPPH) photometric assay. The extract and the reference drug caused a significant (P?P?Oxythenanthera abyssinica showed significant antidiabetic activity.