Diabetes mellitus (DM), a global public health problem, is now emerging as an epidemic world over. The number of diabetic patients would reach 366 million by the year 2030. India now has the world’s largest diabetic population, encompassing an estimated 35 million people out of an overall population of 1 billion and another 79 million people have impaired glucose tolerance. In just over 20 years (i.e. 2025) the country will have almost 200 million people (approximately 15% of the population) affected by diabetes or its precursor. Despite the introduction of hypoglycemic agents from natural and synthetic sources, diabetes and its secondary complications continue to be a major medical problem. Many indigenous Indian medicinal plants have found to be useful to successfully manage diabetes. One of the greatest advantages of traditional medicinal plants is that these are readily available and have no side effects. Even WHO has suggested the evaluation of the potential of plants as effective therapeutics agents, especially in areas in which we lack safe modern drugs. Aloe emodin (50 mg/kg, p.o.) and quercetin (10 mg/kg, p.o.) are reported to possess antihyperglycemic activity. In the present study, three different combinations in the ratio of 70:30, 50:50 and 30:70 of aloe emodin and quercetin were selected and the effect on plasma glucose level at different time intervals was evaluated on normal and glucose loaded rats. Animals treated with combination did not show significant reduction in the normal level of plasma glucose (p<0.01) when compared with control. In the oral glucose tolerance test , animals treated with aloe emodin and quercetin alone showed significant decrease in serum plasma glucose level (p<0.01) when compared with control. Hence, the results obtained in the present study indicate that combination of aloe emodin and quercetin has potential to improve glucose tolerance. Among all the combination groups, combination of aloe emodin and quercetin in the ration of 70:30 showed better antihyperglycemic activity than other combinations.
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