ABSTRACT
Aims: To evaluate the anti-hyperglycaemic efficacy and safety of the methanol extract of the combination of Senecio biafrae leaf, Xylopia aethiopica fruit, Carica papaya seed and Spondias mombin stem bark mixed together in ratio 1:1:1:1 Study Design: Extract of medicinal plants was assayed using glucose and streptozotocin-induced herperglycaemic rats model. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Pharmacognosy, Obafemi Awolowo University, IleIfe, Nigeria, between May, 2019 and January, 2022. Methodology: The extract of the combined plant parts was tested for toxicity in rats while its effects on glucose level, blood and biochemical components were also assessed. Its in-vitro anti-hyperglycaemic activity was assayed in ?-amylase and ?-glucosidase inhibitory models while its in-vivo effects were tested in glucose and streptozotocin-induced hyperglycaemic rats. The antioxidant activity of the extract was also carried out. Results: The extract did not show any adverse effects on blood sugar levels, haematological and biochemical parameters in normal rats in sub acute toxicity tests. The extract gave comparable (p > 0.05) ?-amylase and ?-glucosidase inhibitory effects to acarbose. In glucose-induced hyperglycaemic rats, its 100 mg/kg was the most effective dose with 19, 40, 43, and 57% activity that was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the 10, 18, 24, and 40% activity given by glibenclamide (5 mg/kg) at the same time points. In streptozotocin-induced diabetic assay, its 50 mg/kg showed 31, 85, 85 and 82 % effects on days 4, 7, 10 and 14, respectively that was significantly higher than its 100 mg/kg and glibenclamide on days 7 and 10. The extract also elicited high free radical scavenging effects in all the antioxidant assays. Conclusion: The extract of the combination of four Nigerian antidiabetic plants mixed together in equal ratio gave significantly better antidiabetic activity at low doses than the individual plants without toxic effects.
ABSTRACT
Medicinal plants provide humanity with important phytochemical compounds and extracts which are widely used in treatment of many diseases. Fungal infections are one of these diseases which are widely distributed especially in developing countries; medicinal plants are extensively used in developing countries. There are few antifungal agents, most of them are expensive and have many adverse effects, also there is high incidence of drug resistance among some available antifungal agents, hence for these mentioned reasons many people, especially in developing countries, use medicinal plants (either alone, combined together or combined with known antifungal drugs) in treatment of many fungal infections. This rise a new and important issue about plant(s) – plant(s) and plant(s) - drug interactions. The aim of this review is to try to fill the gap in understanding the interactions of plant(s) - plant(s) and plant(s) – drug(s) combinations by providing an overview of some evidence-based researches done in this field, so our review highlights many interactions between medicinal plants constituents with current available antifungal agents, these interactions may be synergistic, additive, indifferent or antagonistic, so, if there is any antagonistic effect, we recommend to avoid using the combination which caused this effect. We collected a lot of studies which studied the interactions between plant(s) (including extracts, isolated active constituents, essential oils, plants latexes and other phytochemicals) used either together or with conventional antifungal agents. This will not only bring about better understanding of both phytochemicals and antifungal activity, but also may help in searching and developing new safely and effective drugs, specially with those combinations which showed synergistic effect.