Mitigation with plant ethanol extracts of STZ-induced histopathological injuries in the tissues of laboratory rats

Abstract

This work studied the use of several plant extracts as probable medications in the treatment of diabetes. In laboratory rats, the diabetes model was developed by injection of Streptozotocin (STZ) in a dose of 40 mg/kg of body weight. The animals, in which the blood glucose level increased 4-5 times, were considered as diabetic. The diabetic animals were treated by ethanol extracts of plants traditionally used in folk medicine and/or as food in Armenian cuisine. During four weeks, the STZ-induced diabetic rats were administered orally three times in a week with the ethanol extracts from sorrel leaves (SL, Rumex Confertus), pellicles of walnut kernel (WP, Juglans regia), grape leaves (GL, Vitis vinifera) and rose petals (RP, Rosa damascena). At the end of the experiment, certain decrease of blood glucose level was registered in these groups. An oxidative stress marker, malondialdehyde, which increased in the blood of the STZ-induced diabetic animals by 38%, decreased in the SL and WP groups to the level of the intact animals. The histo­pathological examination of the pancreas, kidney and liver sections from the diabetic animals, fed with the extracts from SL, RP and WP, revealed positive changes compared with the STZ-control animals. The obtained results manifest the benefit of using the studied herbal extracts in the STZ-induced diabetes model.