Abstract
Corn silk is a well-known ingredient frequently used in traditional Chinese herbal medicines. This study was designed to evaluate the anti-diabetic, anti-oxidant and anti-hyperlipidemic activities of crude flavonoids extracted from corn silk (CSFs) on streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice. The results revealed that treatment with 300 mg/kg or 500 mg/kg of CSFs significantly reduced the body weight loss, water consumption, and especially the blood glucose (BG) concentration of diabetic mice, which indicated their potential anti-diabetic activities. Serum total superoxide dismutase (SOD) and malondialdehyde (MDA) assays were also performed to evaluate the anti-oxidant effects. Besides, several serum lipid values including total cholesterol (TC), triacylglycerol (TG), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were reduced and the high density lipoprotein cholesterol level (HDL-C) was increased. The anti-diabetic, anti-oxidant and anti-hyperlipidemic effect of the CSFs suggest a potential therapeutic treatment for diabetic conditions.
Highlights
Diabetes mellitus [DM] is a serious chronic metabolic complication that results from abnormal insulin production or metabolism and chronic hyperglycemia [1]
DM is characterized by carbohydrate, lipid and protein metabolism disturbances and hyperglycemia, as well as oxidative stress accompanied with the main clinical symptoms polydipsia, polyuria, polyphagia, high urine glucose level and weight loss [2,3]
Previous studies reported that the total phenolic and the total flavonoids content of its extracts were associated with the pharmacological effects of corn silk, such as the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activities or diuretic activity [21,22]
Summary
Diabetes mellitus [DM] is a serious chronic metabolic complication that results from abnormal insulin production or metabolism and chronic hyperglycemia [1]. DM is characterized by carbohydrate, lipid and protein metabolism disturbances and hyperglycemia, as well as oxidative stress accompanied with the main clinical symptoms polydipsia, polyuria, polyphagia, high urine glucose level and weight loss [2,3] It reported that 7% of the adults around the world suffer from. Flavonoids from some rare or regionally limited natural plant materials, such as Sanguis draxonis [18], Malus toringoides (Rehd.) Hughes leaves [19], and Pilea microphylla (L.) [20] were proved to possess anti-diabetic activity, which implies that there is a good chance that flavonoids from corn silk have anti-diabetes capability. It made great sense to evaluate the anti-diabetic, anti-oxidant and anti-hyperlipidemic activities of flavonoids from corn silk in a STZ-induced diabetic mice model to identify a more abundant natural source for discovering new DM therapies which might be more effective with less side effects and readily accessible to all the diabetic population
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