Fruiting Body of Pleurotus Ostreatus Reduces Serum Glucose and Modifies Oxidative Stress in Type 2 Diabetic: Drosophila Melanogaster (Fruit-Fly)

Abstract

Mushrooms, which possess medicinal properties, are also considered a good source of food and basic nutrients. Diabetic patients now use edible mushrooms as a source of low-calorie food. Mushrooms are used to treat and prevent diseases such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease, hyperacidity, cancer, hypertension and also act as immune modulators. In this study, the antidiabetic and antioxidant effects of the fruiting body of Pleurotus ostreatus (PO) in sucrose-induced type-2 diabetic Drosophila melanogaster was investigated. The fresh fruiting body of PO was obtained from the mushroom farm of the Africa Centre of Excellence in Phytomedicine Research and Development (ACEPRD) and dried with the aid of the ASPRE dryer. The aqueous extract of the dried powder was used for the anti-diabetic and survival assay. The fly homogenate was evaluated for circulating glucose, total thiol, acetylcholinesterase, catalase and glutathione-S-transferase. PO was observed to prolong D. melanogaster’s survival time as more flies (> 50%) survived on the extract compared to control (47%), after 28 days. There was a significant (P 0.05) difference was observed between the metformin and PO treated groups. In the antioxidant study, an insignificant (P > 0.05) difference between the untreated and treated groups was observed. Catalase activity showed a significant (P < 0.05) difference between the diabetic untreated and PO treated groups. We conclude that the fruiting body of P. ostreatus possessed potent hypoglycemic activities in D. melanogaster induced type-2 diabetes, possibly linked to its antioxidant property.