Cinnamon has Higher Efficacy in Attenuating Postprandial Hyperglycemia in Healthy Subjects When Taken After Intake of Glucose

Abstract

Cinnamon's potential efficacy in regulating hyperglycemia has been gaining interest. Evidence from animal studies proves its efficacy as an insulin mimetic and insulin-sensitizing agent. Other studies on humans reported that this spice lowers fasting blood glucose after several weeks of consumption. This study investigated the ability of cinnamon to attenuate postprandial hyperglycemia and whether time of ingestion is a determining factor of its efficacy in normal subjects. The study was approved by the university ethical committee. Thirty healthy subjects fasted for 10–12 hours prior to each experiment of the study and each of this experiment has a 1-week washout period. For the control (C) experiment, the subjects were given 75 g of D-(+)-glucose monohydrate alone, whereas for the treatment experiments subjects were given 6 g of cinnamon at different times such as 30 minutes before (B), 30 minutes after (A) ingestion of glucose and simultaneously (S) given with glucose. At 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes after treatment blood sample was taken then measured its glucose content using Accu-chek Performa®. The total iAUC (±SEM) measured are as follows: C (17,262±351), B (15,592±345), A (13,025±305) and S (14,668±460). One-way ANOVA test was used to compare means of iAUC among the control and treatment groups and the significance of the difference of each pair is C-vs-B (p=.021), C-vs-S (p=.000), C-vs-A (p=.000), B-vs-S (p=.038), B-vs-A (p=.000), S-vs-A (p=.024). It is concluded that cinnamon significantly attenuates postprandial hyperglycemia and it has higher efficacy when taken 30 min after ingestion of glucose.