Patients are turning into herbs for the management of diabetes, which cause increasing in the demand of plant-based alternative medicines. Ficus deltoidea or locally known as "Mas Cotek" in Malaysia is a famous herbal plant. However, many varieties of F. deltoidea existed with varied antidiabetic activities inspire us to evaluate in vivo antidiabetic activity of the most available varieties of F. deltoidea. Therefore, antihyperglycemic effect of different varieties of F. deltoidea at dose 250 mg/kg was evaluated on streptozotocin-nicotinamide-induced diabetic rats and further assessed their urinary metabolites using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR). The hyperglycemic blood level improved towards normoglycemic state after 30 days of treatment with standardized extracts of F. deltoidea var. trengganuensis, var. kunstleri, and var. intermedia. The extracts also significantly managed the biochemical parameters in diabetic rats. Metabolomics results showed these varieties were able to manage the altered metabolites of diabetic rats by shifting some of the metabolites back to their normal state. This knowledge might be very important in suggesting the use of these herbs in long-term treatment for diabetes. The most potential variety can be recommended, which may be useful for further pharmacological studies and herbal authentication processes.
We investigated the total urinary kallikrein levels, left-ventricular wall thickness and mean arterial blood pressure of nontreated and captopril-treated diabetic and nondiabetic spontaneously hypertensive rats. The mean arterial blood pressure was significantly elevated in diabetic spontaneously hypertensive rats as compared to nondiabetic spontaneously hypertensive rats. Captopril treatment caused a significant reduction in the arterial blood pressure of both nondiabetic and diabetic spontaneously hypertensive rats. The left-ventricular wall thickness was also significantly reduced in diabetic and nondiabetic spontaneously hypertensive treated with captopril as compared to nontreated diabetic and nondiabetic spontaneously hypertensive rats. The total urinary kallikrein levels were significantly raised in captopril-treated diabetic and nondiabetic spontaneously hypertensive rats against the values obtained from nontreated diabetic and nondiabetic spontaneously hypertensive rats. These results indicate that blood pressure reduction and left ventricular wall regression with captopril treatment might be due to enhanced renal kallikrein formation. The significance of these findings is discussed.
High-fat diet (HFD) interferes with the dietary plan of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, many diabetes patients consume food with higher fat content for a better taste bud experience. In this study, we examined the effect of HFD on rats at the early onset of diabetes and prediabetes by supplementing their feed with palm olein oil to provide a fat content representing 39% of total calorie intake. Urinary profile generated from liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis was used to construct the orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) score plots. The data provide insights into the physiological state of an organism. Healthy rats fed with normal chow (NC) and HFD cannot be distinguished by their urinary metabolite profiles, whereas diabetic and prediabetic rats showed a clear separation in OPLS-DA profile between the two diets, indicating a change in their physiological state. Metformin treatment altered the metabolomics profiles of diabetic rats and lowered their blood sugar levels. For prediabetic rats, metformin treatment on both NC- and HFD-fed rats not only reduced their blood sugar levels to normal but also altered the urinary metabolite profile to be more like healthy rats. The use of metformin is therefore beneficial at the prediabetes stage.