In vivo Assessment of Antidiabetic Potential and Mapping of Pharmacological Properties of Ethanolic Extract of Leaves of Coccinia grandis on Alloxan-induced Diabetic Rats

Diabetes is a metabolic disease and plant derived products are used to combat this deadly disease. Plant is a diverse source of numerous therapeutic compounds which can be used to ameliorate diabetes. Leaves of Coccinia grandis (L.) (Family: Cucurbitaceae) is one of the leafy vegetable that is used for this purpose traditionally. It has been used against diabetes for a very long time. Our aims were to identify the hypoglycemic effect of extract of leaves of Coccinia grandis as well as to determine its safety profile so that we could use the plant material to improve the diabetic condition. Diabetes was induced in rats by intraperitoneal injection of alloxan at a dose of 150 mg/Kg bodyweight and ethanolic extract of leaves of Coccinia grandis was fed to the rats at a dose of 750 mg/kg. We measured blood glucose level, and safety profile by measuring SGOT, SGPT and creatinine level on diabetic and non-diabetic rats before and after administration of the extract. After measuring blood glucose level, it was found that the hypoglycemic efficacy was comparable to that of metformin (p> 0.05) which was given at a dose of 500 mg/kg. Safety profile were investigated by checking SGOT, SGPT and creatinine level. It was seen that both metformin and leaf extract of Coccinia grandis improved the pathological condition induced by diabetes. Furthermore, in healthy individual rats both metformin and leaf extract of Coccinia grandis did not significantly alter the normal physiological state. It might, therefore, be inferred that the extract of leaves of Coccinia grandis could be used as a good alternative therapy to treat diabetes.