Hypoglycemic Effects of Analog Rice Based from Arrowroot (Marantha arundinacea L.) and Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) on Blood Sugar Level and Pancreas Histopathology of Diabetic Rat

Abstract

Diabetes mellitus is the third largest cause of death in Indonesia and 90% of the cases are diabetes mellitus type 2. Diabetes mellitus type 2 can be prevented and controlled by healthy lifestyle, such as consumption of foods with low glycemic index. Indonesia has high dependence on white rice as staple food, while it is relatively high in glycemic index. One alternative to overcome this problem is analog rice from low glycemic index raw materials such as arrowroot and cowpea. The study was in vivo assay using nested design to examine the hypoglycemic properties of analog rice. The analog rice physical properties analysis results showed that all analog rice formulations were acceptable, therefore selected analog rice were the formulation with the highest and lowest arrowroot levels (A1B1C3 and A4B1C3 formulations). The chemical properties analysis results showed that the rice was high in dietary fiber, which are 17.33% (w/w) and 21.30% (w/w). The glycemic index value of analog rice is 39.40 and 37.12. Analog rice had hypoglycemic effect on rat blood sugar by significantly reducing blood sugar for 21 days, which were 18.97% and 25.50%. Analog rice supplementation for 21 days in rats could also improve the pancreatic beta cell profile.