Elsevier

South African Journal of Botany

Volume 136, January 2021, Pages 100-104
South African Journal of Botany

Anti-diabetic potential of mucilage from Hippeastrum vittatum bulbs in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2020.06.027Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • The anti-hyperglycemic potential of Hippeastrum vittatum mucilage was evaluated.

  • Mucilage was tested at 150 and 250 mg/kg in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

  • The hypoglycemic actions, particularly at 250 mg/kg, were comparable to gliclazide.

  • This is the first report on the anti-diabetic potential of Hippeastrum plants.

  • Mucilage polysaccharides of Amaryllidaceae can afford natural anti-diabetic agents.

Abstract

Plants belonging to the family Amaryllidaceae have been the focus of abundant studies thanks to their structurally diverse alkaloids with excellent biological and pharmacological profiles. Nevertheless, the anti-diabetic properties of these plant species have been considered to a lesser extent, in particular those of the subfamily Amaryllidoideae. Hence, in this work, the potential hypoglycaemic effects of the crude mucilage of Hippeastrum vittatum (L'Her.) (syn. Amaryllis vittata) bulbs were examined at 150 and 250 mg/kg using the streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat model. Overall, as compared to the untreated diabetic rats, oral administration of the mucilage at 150 mg/kg significantly ameliorated the induced hyperglycaemia by 45.37% and 61.95% after 2 and 4 h, respectively, whereas the maximum hypoglycemic actions were observed at 250 mg/kg, causing 57.37% and 65.74% reduction in the elevated blood glucose levels after 2 and 3 h, respectively. These effects were also markedly comparable to those of the standard hypoglycaemic drug gliclazide (50 mg/kg, p.o.). As the first report on the anti-hyperglycaemic activity of the genus Hippeastrum, the obtained results enlighten the potential of the water-soluble polysaccharide fraction from this plant and other Amaryllidaceae species for the development of natural hypoglycaemic agents that could be helpful as alternative or complementary therapies for type-2 diabetes.

Keywords

Amaryllidaceae
Anti-diabetic
Hippeastrum
Hyperglycaemia
Mucilage
Streptozotocin

Abbreviations

STZ
streptozotocin
p.o.
per os (orally)
S.E.M
standard error of the mean

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