ABSTRACT
The use of medicinal plants for management of diabetes mellitus is an old practice which has become even more relevant in modern perspective. The present work was designed to evaluate the effect of a mixture of five medicinal plants which used in folk medicine in Egypt especially in Sinai as hypoglycemic agents on the adult male diabetic rats. These plants are Cleome droserifolia [Samwah], Ambrosia maritima [Damsissa],Artemisia judaica [Shih kharasani], Chiliadenus montanus or Jasonia Montana [Neheda] and Artemisia annua [Kaysom]. Thirty male albino rats were divided equally into three groups including control, diabetic and diabetic treated with a mixture of aqueous extract. A single dose of alloxan [120 mg/kg body weight] was used to induce diabetes in rats. Diabetic rats were given plant mixture extract orally twice daily for 30 days [28.5 mg/kg body weight [b. wt.] twice/day]. There was a marked decline [p<0.01] in levels of serum insulin, body weight [4.98 %], total proteins, albumin, globulin and high density lipoproteins [HDL] accompanied with marked elevation [p<0.01] in levels of fasting blood glucose, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance [HOMA_IR], aspartate aminotransferase[ASAT], alanine aminotransferase [ALAT], gamma-glutamyltransferase [GGT], urea, creatinine, uric acid, serum total lipids[TL], total cholesterol [TC], triglycerides TG, low density lipoproteins [LDL], and very low density lipoproteins[VLDL],risk ratios of TC/HDL and LDL/HDL in diabetic rats as compared to the control rats. While administration of aqueous extract of plant mixture to alloxan diabetic rats significantly ameliorated the disturbed biochemical parameters. These results proved that this plant mixture extract has a significant hypoglycemic effect and ameliorating metabolic abnormalities induced by diabetes mellitus