English

Abstract

Treatments of diabetes with available agents come with one or more side effects, hence, the need for continual search of alternative treatment agents from medicinal plants. This study was designed to analyse qualitatively and quantitatively some phytochemicals in methanolic extract in Phyllanthus fraternus and evaluate their hypoglycaemic activity in both diabetic and normal rats. Sixty-six rats were used of which forty-two were diabetic. Diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal administration of 60 mg/kg body weight of streptozotocin (STZ). Thirty male rats of which twenty-four were diabetic were divided into five (5) groups of six rats each were used for prolonged treatment: Normal, diabetic control, standard control, and two treatments that were orally administered at a dose of 200 and 300 mg/kg body weight of crude methanolic leaf extracts of P. fraternus for 28 days. Thirty six (36) rats were used for oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) which was divided into six groups of three rats each for both normal and diabetic rat. A single dose of 200 mg/kg body weight of crude and fractions (I, II and III) of methanolic leaf extracts of P. fraternus were orally administered to diabetic and normal rats before they were loaded with 2 g/kg body weight glucose. The results of phytochemical screening of the crude extract showed the presence of compounds like alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, phenols and saponins. Fraction I contained only flavonoid, fraction II and III contained more than three phytochemicals. Oral administration of 200 and 300 mg/kg body weight of methanolic extracts to diabetic rats significantly reduced (p < 0.05) serum glucose levels in all the treatment groups. The results of OGGT showed that fraction I and metformin groups significantly (p<0.05) lowered blood glucose level 30 min after glucose load in both diabetic and normal rats when compared with their controls and other treatments groups. These results suggest P. fraternus methanolic leaf extract have phytochemicals with glucose lowering ability especially fraction I that competes favorably with metformin. Key words: Streptozotocin, diabetes, Phyllanthus fraternus, phytochemicals, oral glucose tolerance test, (OGTT).