Effects of Leaf Extracts from Piper sarmentosum Roxb., Lagerstroemia speciosa (L.) Per. and Centella asiatica (L.) Urban. on Blood Glucose Level, Chemistry of Urine, Histology of Small Intestine and Hematological Values in Diabetic Rats

ABSTRACT

This research was aimed to investigate the effects of ethanolic leaf extracts from Piper sarmentosum Roxb., Lagerstroemia spesiosa (L.) Per. and Centella asiatica (L.) Urban. on blood glucose levels, urine volume and chemical properties, histology of small intestine and hematological values in diabetic rats. The experiments were conducted by daily and oral feeding the leaf extracts from these three plants at the dose of 250 mg/kg to streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats for eight weeks. The results showed that all the extracts used could reduce blood glucose levels and increase in the body weight gain. The extract from  Lagerstroemia spesiosa (L.) Per leaves reduced blood glucose levels (58.06±3.49%) greater than the extract from  Centella asiatica  (L.) Urban. leaves (23.03±9.09%). The extract from Piper sarmentosum Roxb. leaves reduced blood glucose levels in early 3 weeks of experiment. The feature of small intestine tissues from Piper sarmentosum Roxb., Lagerstroemia spesiosa (L.) Per. and Centella asiatica (L.) Urban. were not different from normal and glibenclamide treated. Moreover, all of extracts exerted any alteration of % hematocrit, g % hemoglobin, red blood cell and white blood cell count were not different but significantly higher (p \< 0.05) than diabetic group. Urine volume and chemical properties of all extract treated rats were not different from control and glibenclamide treatments. These findings indicated the leaf extracts from Piper sarmentosum Roxb., Lagerstroemia spesiosa (L.) Per. and Centella asiatica (L.) Urban. can be used for lowering blood glucose level but had no effect on volume and chemical properties of urine, histology of small intestine and hematological values in diabetic rats.