Asian Journal of Research in Biology

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease characterized by a relative or absolute lack of insulin secretion or insulin inaction. This research was designed to study the effect of the aqueous extract of Scoparia dulcis, a traditionally used antidiabetic plant. A total of 75 adult male albino rats were used in this study. The rats were divided into five treatment groups (T1-T5) with each group containing 5 rats and the experiment was replicated three times. Treatment 1 was non-diabetic, T2-T5 were made diabetic using alloxan. The induction of diabetes was achieved by intraperitoneal injection of alloxan monohydrate (150 mg/kg b.w.). The aqueous extract was administered using oral gavage at two doses of 200 mg/kg and 600mg/kg daily for 11 days. Fasting blood sugar was measured every 3 days for all the rats. The result revealed that there was a non-dose dependent reduction on glucose levels as the 200 mg/kg (low dose) (40.20±5.63 mg/dl) was more effective than even the high dose (600 mg/kg) (65.33±13.61mg/dl) and the standard drug (glibenclamide) (57.50±7.08 mg/dl) group. There was a significant difference (p<0.05) between the blood glucose level of the negative control (untreated group) and the other experimental groups. The blood glucose level was high in the untreated diabetic rats (237.60±3.14 mg/dl) than the groups treated with the extract of Scoparia dulcis and glibenclamide at the end of the experiment. There was also a non-significant difference between the initial and final glucose levels in the experimental groups (p>0.05) except the untreated diabetic group. This shows a healing phase. The hypoglycemic activity of aqueous extract of Scoparia dulcis was clearly revealed in this study even at a low dose, therefore, a high dose might not be required for the treatment of diabetes.